The other day, I was blooowwwn away like A LOOSE STRAND OF HAIR when re-watching "The Breakfast Club." There were so many lessons that flew over my head (the same one with the loose strands of hair) when I was younger, seeing the movie for the first time.
It's not just the fist pump in the end that leaves you reeling— it's the way you find yourself relating to each of the characters...sitting there dumbfounded. You somehow just grew up with them on their Saturday detention, learning lessons you'll keep forever.
Here are 10 timeless lessons "The Breakfast Club" taught:
1. Authority can and will be wrong about you .
All of those scenes where John Bender is being called absolute trash and given detentions over and over again... they all lead to the one moment in the closet where Richard Vernon tells Bender he will pathetically amount to nothing. He tells Bender to take one shot and says "That's what I thought" when he doesn't, essentially meaning that Bender is a scared loser with no potential. It's so rude and a wake-up call that the people who are supposed to be good to you — the people who act above you — they are the ones full of it...they are the pathetic ones searching through files in the basement later. Don't listen to anyone who doesn't believe in you. They're just another reason why you will succeed. They're the person you are bigger than.
2. Labels label — so rip those labels off.
Growing up, we have this obsession with labels. Small, medium, large. Jock. Gangster. Cheerleader. Smart. Stupid. Straight. Gay. Let's just all be humans, sharing this world together, dealing with our little idiosyncrasies.
3. We all come from different homes, but yearn for the exact same thing.
We all have different backgrounds. We have different cultures, different parents, different neighborhoods. But no matter what, we all want to be loved. We all want attention. We yearn to be accepted.
4. Don't ever buy a stereotype.
Don't look at someone and think they are below you, or above you, based on appearances or whatever group you have placed them in. They are so much more than that. You are so much more than that.
5. Popularity is absolute bull s**t.
Popularity is literally a social construction. People who are popular only think they are, and you let them think they are. They have no power over you and are all hurting inside for the same acceptance that you want. They just most likely have their noses in the air while doing it. Like that one scene where Clair notifies them all that she wouldn't associate with them in the hallway on Monday...she is letting the stereotype she fell under have the power. She is not being herself or what her true heart wants.
6. We all have to deal with a certain pressure from someone.
There is always something or someone we want to impress. Sometimes it's ourselves. But it's unhealthy and creates situations where you feel you aren't good enough. You see in each of these characters the sadness of having some kind of pressure on their shoulders...and you see how they all could relate with it and cry about it. In the end, that fist bump is so cathartic because it shows a release of that pressure—a big "F U" to the world that in that library, they learned to just let go.
7. Parents aren't perfect.
Each of these characters express an issue with either one parent or both. The jock, the "basket case," the rich girl, the chess club student, the smoker... everyone. And it's so tough to watch because you see that these kids do really want their parents' love... and it just proves that at the end of the day, no matter what is happening at home, it doesn't have to affect your future. You can be whoever you want to be.
8. Dancing in the library fixes everything.
Have you tried it?
9. Total strangers can become your best friends.
If you open up...be vulnerable...the conversations you can have with absolute strangers can be catalysts for the greatest friendships.
Again, I ask, have you tried it?
10. Sometimes you're the only one holding yourself back
At the end of the day, you can go so far and be the best version of yourself if you just allow yourself to be yourself, to exist and love yourself for who you are. At the end of the movie, they all accepted each other for who each of them were...and they did for themselves too. And that's a beautiful thing.
