As someone that very much identifies with the poetic words of a certain Britney Spears, I understand myself to be “Not a Girl” but “Not Yet a Woman.” And at such a trying time in my budding adulthood, most of which I spend sitting in front of a television, I seem to constantly be searching for a strong, successful female character to look up to. While I love watching the “Real Housewives” and “Gossip Girl” just as much as the next 20-something collegiate woman, modeling my life after Countess LuAnn or Blair Waldorf just doesn’t seem appropriate for me – or anyone — anymore.
But alas, I believe to have found a shining beacon in “Parks and Recreation:” Leslie Knope. If you’ve never watched this show before, you should know that it’s a comedy on NBC starring Amy Poehler, formerly of “Saturday Night Live,” who plays Leslie Knope, deputy director of the Parks and Recreation department for a small town called Pawnee, Indiana. The show also stars comedian Aziz Ansari, Rashida Jones, and U of I alum, Nick Offerman, in case you needed more incentive to check it out.
But back to Leslie, she is the hardest working fictional character I’ve ever come across. She’s constantly striving to make everything around her better in order to improve the lives of everyone she cares about, which is basically everyone. There was more than an entire season dedicated to her trying to convert an abandoned pit into a city park. Leslie works this hard, all while being more optimistic and positive than I think I’ve been in my entire life. Even when the rest of her department has given up, Leslie keeps pushing harder. Without giving away any spoilers, let me just say that great things happen to her because of it.
Being able to balance everything, especially in college, is difficult. We have class, extracurriculars, jobs and, oh yeah, remember friends and family? Sometimes it seems impossible to keep up with our personal lives, but even in the constant chaos of Leslie’s life, she still makes time for her friends. Let me be clear that when I say “time for her friends,” I don’t mean a quick chat where she’s on her phone the entire time (we’re all guilty of it). Instead, I mean quality time where she makes sure her friends know that she cares about them.
With our busy schedules, we sometimes need to be reminded that the world still turns when we’re not stressing out about finals or that we’re wearing the same dress as that taller, thinner girl at the party. Quality time with the people you love is vital to our happiness and success in life, and Leslie shows that first hand.
Aside from having the dedication and a work ethic greater than everyone who’s ever existed, this girlfriend also loves waffles and is dating Ben Wyatt, played by Adam Scott. Imagine a waffle date with Adam Scott.
Yeah, exactly.
Although I will always be a firm believer in people following their own paths and being the best individual they can be, we all still need role models. And as fictional characters on television go, Leslie Knope is making sure we wind up being the confident, successful women (or men) we all have the potential to be.