Relating to Gilmore Girls
One TV series that most aspiring college students can relate to is the series, Gilmore Girls. The series follows Rory, who is a high school student that has to work her way to the top of her class to find success and be accepted into a prestigious preparatory school. Her mother, Lorelai, interconnects with Rory’s struggles in the plot to make her way in life because she is a single mom.
The Challenges of Attending College
Once Rory attends Chilton Preparatory School, the series focuses on her dreams of becoming a Harvard Student. Though she has the potential to succeed, she comes from a broken home where she cannot afford to go to one of the Ivy League schools. Rory’s grandparents become influential in the plot, since they are wealthy and offer to help with the tuition. They make an agreement to help Rory pay her college fees. Loralei and Rory must attend dinner on Friday nights. Rory and Loralei have to try to be as polite and well-mannered as they can, though they are not of the upper class society. The show has some comedic moments in it, as Rory and Lorelei try to make their visits as interesting as possible in upper crust society. There are also issues that arise from their differences, and the series emphasizes this aspect of life.
Finding Success and Happiness in Life
As Rory has to learn how to interact with upper class society, she also has to strive to fit in an elite school with students that are from the most affluent families. Rory works to keep some of her high school friends such as, Lane Kim, who is a precocious character as is Rory. She discusses relationship and fashion issues with Rory as she must abide by strict standards that her family has for her regarding her relationships. As opposed to Lane, Rory is from an unconventional home as her single mom has a complex love life. This is a contrast to her friend, Lane’s, Christian family. Of all Loralei’s complex relationships, her relationship with Luke at the diner is the most predominate one as she frequently goes there to seek friendship, love, and advice for all of life’s problems. Rory also has a complicated relationship with Dean, who is a down-to-earth character that seems to genuinely care about Rory. They date for a while when she also receives advances from Tristan, a rich student that is superficial and is the opposite of Dean. Similar to Rory’s decision to fight off Tristan, Rory also befriends and fights against, Paris Geller, who is another upper class student. She maintains her status through cleverly keeping her enemies close, in order to succeed in school and in life. She learns to find happiness despite the many issues, conflicts, and set-backs that occur in the plot through her witty and distinct sense of self.
Life Lessons to Learn from Rory
Rory teaches students to not only work their hardest in their classes and to discern who your real friends, but she also helps college and high school students learn that they must play it “cool” around those who you know aren’t in your best interest. The popular crowd poses no real threat to the highly intelligent Rory who can quickly and easily verbally fight off her opponents. She helps others use this mentality as they have to overcome the social and emotional issues all students encounter in school. Rory teaches the viewers to challenge all of the philosophical and social aspects of life through her journey as she must work through life’s main problems to continually find out more about who she is as a young woman in the series. The character helps you learn strategies about how to make it through the challenges of young adulthood when you may not know who to befriend and how to tactfully distance yourself from your enemies. Through the series’ emphasis on the differences between the values in Rory’s family, the elite upper class, and Lane’s family, you learn how you must choose your words wisely and find strength through implementing strategies that are appropriate to each situation, in order to deal with society at its best and worst as a young person. You learn through Rory’s characterization to not let anyone take away your own opinions and sense self-worth from you as she tactfully fights her way to the top of the social ladder by attending the socially brutal upper class schools. You can learn to not let others make you feel less than your best through Rory’s ability to handle difficult issues in the most accurate and appropriate ways. By watching Gilmore Girls, you also can learn to that you must find out what your opinions are about the world and what you value most, in order to succeed. The series tells you that life is what you decide make of it as Rory beats the odds and the standards that society has set against her. The series challenges you to work through life’s trials and find your way in life.