If you are anything like me, anytime a new and anticipated Netflix show comes out, it is almost instantly on the TV. Recently, I watched the show One Day which follows two people who met at a party in college. The fun part though is we get a glimpse into their lives after one-year passes, and one year is shown in each episode, spanning fourteen years. We see them go their separate ways and then connect again later in their lives. Now, I’m going into why I think this is important for people in their 20s to watch, but it is going to involve some spoilers, so this is your spoiler warning!!
ONE LAST SPOILER WARNING!!
One Day represents what happens when we don’t go for what we want or need in our lives, and just expect it to all fall into place the second we think it should. Emma and Dexter, the main characters, spend years as “good friends” looking for each other’s qualities in different people, and miss out on so much time with each other because of that.
We watch in suspense as we wait for them to realize just how perfect they are for one another. They first meet at a college right before graduation. They end up spending the night and beginning of the next day together and remain in touch over the years. This is how we are updated on what is going on in their lives each year on July 15th from the late 80s into the late 90s. We see them face heartbreak, lose jobs, lose friends and we even see them lose each other. That is until they realize how right they are for one another many years down the road.
I often find myself thinking about what would happen if I just went for it, and what happens when I don’t go for what I want. This show proves that it is important to just go for it, whether it’s taking the class, asking the person you want out on a date or accepting that job halfway across the country. We see Emma and Dexter get countless opportunities to just go for it and be with one another, but they do not get together until they are in their late 20s/early 30s, and so much time has passed them by.
Unfortunately, only a few years after they start officially dating and being a couple, and after their engagement, Emma passes away when a car hits her as she rides her bike down the street. All anyone can think about is how they were finally happy after we watched their journeys, and now that was all taken away from them in an instant. After seeing them finally being happy and rooting for them for so long, it is hard to watch their story end so abruptly and horrifically.
Now, how does this affect someone in their 20s? Well, we are faced with adult choices and each can be very impactful. This can be like Emma and Dexter’s situation where it can be focused on love, changing one’s major or even a job post-graduation. We are constantly faced with choices that have equally good and bad consequences. It’s not that there is a “wrong choice,” there just may be a choice that could emerge being more “better.”
We only find this out after we make the choice, of course. We can either pick the wrong job and realize it 6 months into employment and feel like the world is falling apart. But what did we see Emma and Dexter do? They regrouped and made new choices in their lives that led them to each other once again.
In real life, we can regroup when we realize we need a change and get our choices to lead us to where we need to be. Life is hard and scary, and when we watch others, we think we know what choices they should make…. but do we?
Who are we to say that Emma and Dexter did something wrong? They were on their own time, and unfortunately, they did not have enough. In a weird way, is that not the definition of life? Living through our choices. When bad things happen, we wish we never put ourselves in that position. Although, when we finally arrive to a point where we feel good, we find ourselves wishing we made the choices that would have put us there this whole time.
That’s what we see in the show One Day and what the show teaches us. That is what life is in your 20s, too. Making the good and the bad choices and remaking them until life feels right