Credit: Mashable Composite: Bob Al-Greene / Mashable And Frank Ockenfels / Warner Bros Tv / Kobal / Shutterstock
This TV series has everything you could ask for: immaculate autumn vibes, lovable characters, love triangles, diverse pop culture references, and a fair share of messy drama. I found this series when I started university and I couldn’t stop watching it ever since. As of today, I finished it and I can say that it is an amazing show to binge-watch.
We follow three generations of Gilmore Girls: Rory, Lorelai, her mother, and Emily, Lorelai’s mother. These witty and outspoken women go through various hardships throughout the series, such as paying for a child’s tuition, experiencing self-esteem issues, fulfilling family expectations and defining one’s own path in life are some of the few I can mention.
I treasure Stars Hollow and the Gilmore Girls. The “hate” I have for the show, frankly speaking, is really fear and frustration masquerading as hatred. At the beginning of the Gilmore-ish journey, I aspired to be like Rory. She was a studious girl with straight A’s and at the top of her class. Everybody she met before transferring schools told her she was a gifted child, perhaps the smartest one in town. Rory builds this perception of herself that makes it difficult for her when she realizes that in her new school, she’s no longer the smartest one. Now in a new environment, she contemplates the idea of giving up and going back to her old school. In view of the fact that she has been rolled in late at Chilton, she was forced to work extra hard to keep up with her classes. She overcomes this challenging experience and once again, finds herself at the top of her class.
Then, having arrived at university, her life gets turned upside down. The once “perfect and gifted” child gets told to drop out of a class because she’s having trouble keeping up with the course’s workload. At one point, she also gets told that she doesn’t have what it takes to reach her dream job, and decides to drop out of university. By this point, one of my biggest fears inadvertently kicked in; I found myself also being a victim of the Rory Gilmore Syndromeーbeing called smart and gifted all your life just to find out you were only in a cave of shadows.
I find myself these days just like Rory did, lacking direction and feeling that I’m no longer good at school when in the past all I ever did was study because I loved school. It’s scary to think that someone who spent all her teenage years studying and getting amazing grades doesn’t get to be this outstanding person as an adult.
Rory’s fall from grace is a wake-up call for all of us. First, it is normal to feel adrift. We must remember that we will ultimately find our purpose as we progress in life. The key is to avoid losing hope and to be kind to ourselves whenever we possibly can. On the contrary, we will lose ourselves in the process. Finally, sometimes life doesn’t go our way, but then again, it’s never too late to get back on track. And one person that was always by Rory’s side was Lorelai. The mother-daughter bond they had will always be one of my favorite things about the show.
So, if you haven’t already, go grab your favorite snacks or a cup of coffee and let yourself fall “in between love and hate for Gilmore Girls.”