Why are people so desperate to get what they want? Is it their life goal, or are they just bored? Are you willing to reck yourself and the society around you for something? It depends on what it is and how much you need it, but how powerful can wanting something truly be? I am constantly surprised, and a little jealous of how motivated someone can be to get what they want. Sometimes people stop when they hit their first failure, but others won’t quit until they achieve their goal. As a child, I was probably screaming and crying because I wanted an unnecessary item. Whether that was buying a pet hamster or wanting to eat ice cream for breakfast, they were both something I couldn’t have. Now, my experiences might be closer to not being able to go to my favorite artist’s concert, but I still desired to have or do something in all three of those examples. The short film, “Scavengers”, represents this idea very well.

The two main characters of the film are shown going through multiple in order to get their main goal at the end. From distracting a wild animal from its cave to cutting open a flying fish, and finally sticking their head into a blue orb from a flying stingray; these abnormal actions are proof of how much the characters wanted to be back on earth, which was their main goal throughout the whole film. At the beginning of the animation, we see the countless tally marks on their wall, which represent the days they’ve been in that world and how they’re willing to repeat the long process just to experience life back on earth again. Although their minds were set on the goal, many distractions can come your way which “may be affecting you more than you realize”. The character, No-face, from the animated movie Spirited Away was a victim of this.

As No-face focused on getting the attention of Chihiro, he didn’t realize he was damaging his body and the spirit realm around him. When Chihiro fed him the medicine that the river spirit gave her, he finally threw up all of the food. It appears that the more food No-face consumes, the more evil his spirit becomes. This made him realize that wanting to gain her attention and approval with gold only shaped him to become more villain-like and pulled him further away from his true intentions.

Not everyone can get distracted this easily though. Can someone be so dedicated to something that they want to do it multiple times a day, every day for a month after many failures? Well, the answer is yes. This case includes a man named “Godfrey Daniels” and a phone booth in the Mojave Desert. After Daniels read about this booth in a letter, he became very interested in it. He wanted someone to answer his call from the booth so badly, so it began a routine of his to call that number every day for over a month. His dedication worked in his favor because he did end up getting a response from the booth.

This illustrates the power of commitment and how life is structured around hard work in order to achieve your goals. Sometimes it can be walking across the street to your favorite fast food place and your goal was getting a burger, or training hard to win a tournament. It doesn’t matter if it’s something big or small, everything is worth it based on how badly you want it.