When Gilmore Girls ended in May of 2007, I cried. Only 11 at the time, I had spent the last few years envying my sister and mother as they watched it together every week. The fast-paced conversations, quirky characters, and unusual mother-daughter relationship made up a world I had only just entered.
Since I was young, it was hard to relate to some mature concepts in the show. Rory stressed about college and dealt with bullies. Lorelai struggled with relationships and fought with her mother. But as I grew up, they were always there for me as I experienced similar complications.
Now in my first year at college, I immediately regretted not bringing my Gilmore Girls DVDs (I have all 7 seasons), until I heard the news that it is finally coming to Netflix. I started thinking of all the ways Gilmore Girls has helped me grow up, and became excited about how it will continue to guide me throughout college.
Here are the 5 most important lessons I learned:
1. It’s okay to be a loner sometimes. Rory ate lunch alone almost every day in high school, with only the company of headphones and a novel – and she was perfectly content. Rory helped me realize that being alone doesn’t necessarily mean you’re lonely – you don’t have to part of the big group in order to be happy.
2. Don’t overload yourself. I thought of Rory during my first week at Chapman, when I realized that taking six classes as a freshman was too much work, something Rory discovered during her first year as well. For Rory, admitting this deemed her a failure, but she finally accepted that she had just spread herself too thin. It’s okay to take a step back sometimes and take it easy.
3. Sometimes you have to take two steps back before you can take a giant step forward. One of my least favorite times of the show is when Rory dropped out of Yale after a newspaper editor told Rory that she didn’t “have it” to become a reporter. While leaving Yale and her journalism aspirations could have been The Dumbest Thing Rory Gilmore Has Ever Done, it ultimately showed her how much she really needed them. After a few months, Rory returned to Yale; the series ended up with her reporting on and following Obama’s campaign trail.
4. Have a support system. During a temporary estrangement from Rory, Lorelai realized that she had no one left – except for her boyfriend Luke. She turned to Luke for support. After realizing that he was there for her unconditionally, she proposed. This, for me, defines a true partner in life: someone who is there when no one else is. That’s someone you keep around.
5. The “accepted” path is not always the right one. When Lorelai got pregnant at 16, her parents insisted she stay at home and marry the father. Instead, Lorelai ran away with Rory and became a maid at a small-town inn, where she worked her way up and became the manager. If she had listened to her parents, she would have spent her life in a superficial world, one where she would never get to be herself. Now, I always trust my gut when it comes to important decisions – you never know where it might lead.