I’ve watched my fair share of musicals, and all of them featured an unrealistically happy ending. That was until I watched La La Land; the only musical I’ve watched with a more realistic ending. I never expected to watch a musical and to be drowning in a puddle of my own tears afterward. The first time I watched the movie, I hated it. I didn’t know whether to be jumping for joy or balling my eyes out. Though it took a few weeks for me to mentally process the ending, this life has changed my perspective on life entirely.

La La Land made me realize how immature and naive I am for thinking everyone gets a happy ending in life. My first thought after watching the movie was “why can’t they achieve their goals and be together?”, it’s a hard pill to swallow, but life usually doesn’t work that way. In fact, the producer Fred Berger expresses “the plan was always for the two leads to go their separate ways, something he saw as a more realistic outcome”. Many people share the belief that Mia and Sebastian’s love story was the epitome of “right person, wrong time”. Now, while I can see where they are coming from I’d have to respectfully disagree.

If you’ve watched the movie, you’d know that it has a bittersweet ending. Though Mia and Sebastian have gone their separate ways, they were able to achieve their dreams. Mia and Sebastian were right for one another and met each other at a perfect time. If they didn’t meet when they did, I’m convinced that neither of them would have pursued their dreams. Mia was an aspiring actress, but could never get a role and doubted herself, while Sebastian wanted to own a jazz club, but didn’t think he was capable of it. These fools with a dream were destined to meet each other when they did. Sebastian took Mia to the audition that skyrocketed her career as a successful actress even when she wanted to quit, and Mia gave Sebastian the courage to open Seb’s Jazz Club. They had a beautiful relationship and learned so much from one another, but ultimately they weren’t meant to be together.

It was very hard for me to accept that not everyone who is in love ends up together, but La La Land made me realize that some people are in our life just so that they can learn from each other. During their relationship, they grew as people in a way that made me believe they were each other’s destiny, but in actuality, they served the purpose of encouraging the other to go after their dreams. When Sebastian envisions an alternate universe where they ended up together, but stand in the way of each other’s dreams, he accepts that their separation was for the best.

Later in their life, Mia is married to another man, and they stumble across a club while on a date. Without realizing it, they walk into Seb’s Jazz Club, and Mia and Sebastian lock eyes. They give each other a knowing smile that confirms what they both knew; this was for the best. They can happily accept that while they can’t be together, they owe their success to each other and hold a special place in their heart for the person who helped them follow their dreams. In the end, they both got what they wanted the most in life, and realized they had to pursue it separately.

Growing up, every movie I watched formed my unrealistic expectations of love. Everyone finds their person and live happily ever after. The beauty of La La Land is that both characters get their happy ending. At first glance, it may not seem like it because most movies’ portrayal of love is impractical and too good to be true. Everyone you encounter in life has a purpose, and for Mia and Sebastian, their purpose was to help each other grow and pursue their dreams. When they saw each other for the first time in years at the club, they weren’t devastated that they didn’t end up together, instead, seeing the other person get everything they dreamt of was fulfilling enough.