Rory Gilmore's Top Six Moments

Cheers to Rory Gilmore for being every nerd's ultimate spirit animal. We thank her for making it cool to have your nose buried in a book and to dream about college before you were even old enough to go to prom. Rory showed us all what small-town life was like, she taught us that awkward first kisses are nothing short of normal, and she justified our junk food and coffee addictions. While the youngest Gilmore Girl was far from perfect, she definitely had her moments in the sun. Here are Rory Gilmore’s top six moments:

1. Her First "I Love You"

“I love you, you idiot.” We all swooned when Dean showed up in Chilton’s courtyard and Rory stumbled into her first confession of love -- and when he swept her up in front of all her pretentious classmates and kissed her, oh our hearts melted. While Dean’s hunky reaction may have stolen the show, this was one of Rory’s best moments because she ditched her eloquence and quick wit and spoke right from her awkward, teenage heart.

2. Her C-SPAN Speech With Paris

After a power struggle that threatened to tear their friendship apart, we were all a bit relieved when we found out that Rory and Paris would be giving the Bicentennial Speech on C-SPAN together, hopefully repairing their friendship and putting an end to the competition. Much to our shock and horror, however, Paris ruined the speech. Despite Rory's ruined first television appearance, she did not blame Paris. Instead, she acted as a selfless friend, comforting Paris through her boy problems and rejection from Harvard.

3. Her Chilton Graduation Speech

As Rory spoke of her walk between two worlds, literature and real life, every fan reflected on this walk with her. As she thanked her grandparents, and her best friend Lorelei, all of us were “not crying, not crying, okay crying, but not blubbering” along. This was one of Rory’s top moments because it made us all believe in the magic of opening a book, and the strength in family ties.

4. Her Jump With The Life And Death Brigade

In one swoop, Rory took both her first real steps as a journalist and a walk on the wild side. Never did we expect rule-following, schedule-making, library-loving Rory Gilmore to do something as reckless as jump from great heights with nothing but an umbrella and a cute boy to keep her safe. Nonetheless, she did it, and we all loved it.

5. Her (Final) Breakup With Logan

Yes we all loved Logan as the adventure-seeking, not-so-serious, do-anything-to-get-the-girl, coffee cart-buying, poker-playing, smooth-talking guy that he is. Maybe we loved him a bit more when he grew up and gained a career. We couldn’t help but smile every time he delivered the ever-so-sweet “Hey, Ace.” But the real question is: did he write Rory a book?

All jokes aside, when Rory refused Logan’s proposal, this was one of her top six moments, because she decided she was not going to let a man define her future or prevent her from reaching her goals. She had bigger plans than becoming Mrs. Huntzburger and putting everything she worked for on hold for him. It broke her heart, but she followed the path she had always wanted.

6. Her Dream Job

Our favorite Gilmore experienced setback after setback, including her time off from Yale and her dispute with Mitch Huntzburger. Regardless, our favorite Rory Gilmore moment was when she finally accepted her dream job as a traveling journalist. We may have cried a little with the rest of Stars Hollow as they said Bon Voyage, but at the same time we were bursting with pride. Rory was now a real journalist, heading on to the campaign trail!