What Gilmore Girls Taught Me About Real Life

As I just finished re-watching the classic Gilmore Girls for the fifth time, it really got me thinking how there are a lot of life lessons embedded into the journey of Rory Gilmore's life that I can relate to. Here is a list of the ones that stood out to me most. They showed me that life has a strange way of working out but in the end, everything happens for a reason because it was meant to be that way.

1. Most people do not end up with their first love

We all know Dean as the charming, dashing, handsome young man that had the honor of being Rory Gilmore's first love. Despite being young and in high school, Dean was always fiercely loyal and protective of Rory. He was always there for her and stuck by her during any rough patch. Some may argue he could be clingy at times, but to be young and in love is one of the best feelings and Dean certainly fit this category. At the beginning, we all thought Rory and Dean would end up together after 2 years of dating but unfortunately, this love story came to end when Jess came into the picture. There's a saying that one's first love is the person you will end up with, but Rory realistically proves otherwise. Not even fictional TV show characters always get their fairy-tale ending.

2. Graduating from an Ivy League school does not necessarily mean you are set for life

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Throughout the first 3 or 4 seasons, we see Rory working her butt off to get into Harvard, only to end up going to Yale University. Though she did end up graduating top of her class from Chilton and then Yale, Rory only has a short term success period. By the time she is 32, she is in between homes, juggling relationships, and struggling to find stability in her career. According to the Year in the Life, we see that Rory has had her major accomplishments with publishing in the New Yorker, but this is short-lived because she has no stable long-term career in journalism. There is often a common misconception that if you graduate from an Ivy League school, you are automatically set for the rest of your life; however, Rory displays the true struggles of a woman out in the real world hungry for something more permanent.

3. Finding true love happens at the right time, if at all

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While the suspense of Lorelai's love life was getting to all of us, I was pleased to see the wait was worth it. Luke is the yang to her yin, the peanut butter to her jelly, the mug to her coffee. He is exactly who she was meant to end up with even if they both did not know it at first. They both had to go through a few unsuccessful relationships only to find each other at last, and it wasn't even cheesy. We all knew Luke was hopelessly in love with her, and it warms my heart seeing he finally got the girl. In fact, this gave me hope by the fact that if I am still single in my thirties or even forties, finding true love has to happen at the right time if it is meant to happen at all. Forcing love never works out in anyone's favor; the stars just have to align at the right moment like it did for Luke and Lorelai.

4. Pure friendships last for a very long time

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I can't decide who is more friendship goals- Sookie and Lorelai or Rory and Lane. I do know that both friendships are the purest forms of love a girl can have though. Rory and Lane's friendship is strong enough to make it despite Rory going to a different high school as well as managing school, boyfriends, and extracurriculars. We should all take a moment to appreciate Lane's patience and understanding throughout all of this even though it got frustrating at times. Their reuniting in Stars Hollow was so wholesome in the Year in the Life, and it shows that true friendships can last for a very long time as long as both people make the effort to do so. For Lorelai and Sookie, even though Sookie leaves the inn for a couple years to find her calling, Lorelai never holds this against her and even supports her for following her dreams. Lastly, we can't forget about Michel, who stayed with Lorelai and Sookie when they opened up their own inn. Nothing says pure love like Michel's angry French accent!