5 College Lessons From Rory Gilmore
With the fall semester kicking into gear and the Gilmore Girls revival approaching, I want to explore some of the life lessons I’ve learned from Rory’s college years. She has always been a character I look up to and admire. While many viewers criticize her Yale years, I think they illustrate her as someone human and relatable. While the decisions she makes and experiences she has are not universal, the fundamental messages they teach are. Here is a look at five things I took away:
1. Take Your Classes Seriously
All of them. Not only the classes that apply to your major, but those general education classes as well. They may seem menial and trivial, but you will get as much out of them as you put in. Rory always overachieves and never mitigates the value of any of her classes, and we should all have that attitude. Even if your professor doesn’t take attendance or collect the homework, keep up with the readings. Hit up a study tree. That art history course or philosophy class might feel completely banal and frivolous but they aren’t. They will make you a more well-rounded person. There is no such thing as useless information.
2. Start Building Your Resume
Rory knows that a degree isn’t enough to land her a job after graduation. While enrolled in classes, Rory joins the Yale Daily News, interns at the fictional Stamford Eagle Gazette, and even briefly works in a dining hall swiping ID cards. Come graduation, Rory already has an impressive resume and portfolio. As wonderful as classes are, it’s advantageous to put yourself in a work environment to get experience and further yourself professionally.
3. Nurture Your Relationships
If there is one thing Rory knows how to do, it’s how to balance her education with her personal life. No matter how busy she gets, Rory always finds time for her family and friends. Because of that, she has a solid support system. It’s important to surround yourself with people who love and encourage you. Don’t ever take those people for granted. As much as Gilmore Girls revolves around the characters’ educations and careers, it is always at it’s core a show about the importance of relationships.
4. Know There is No Perfect Road to Success
In the later seasons of Gilmore Girls, Rory shows us that even when it seems impossible to recover from your mistakes, it can be done. After being told that she doesn’t have what it takes to be a journalist, Rory drops out of Yale, estranges herself from her mother, and loses sight of everything that’s important. All while leading a materialistic life under her grandparent’s lavish roof. After Jess, her ex-boyfriend, talks some sense into her, Rory re-enroll in classes, reconciles with her mom, and gets herself hired at the paper where she interned. We also see how far Jess comes, and in a very different way. Despite failing to graduate high school, he writes a novel and finds himself working for a small publishing house. Gilmore Girls shows us that there is no “right” way to success. College might not necessarily be for everyone, and that’s okay.
5. Find Time for Fun!
College is incredibly stressful and overwhelming. Not only are you trying to do well in your classes, but you are trying to arrange an entire life for yourself in a four-year period. It’s important to make sure you have fun and try new experiences. In You Jump, I Jump Jack, Rory gets out of her comfort zone by jumping off of seven-story high scaffolding. If the opportunity presents itself, take it.
Are there any lessons that you took away from Rory’s college years? Let us know in the responses!
