Things I've learned from "Felicity"

So, when I found out I'd been admitted to NYU, discussion of this college drama happened to come up a time or two. The series ran between 1998 and 2002, while I was 5th-8th grade. I remember that my mom watched it; I can't remember if she was a real devotee, but I do remember her pointing out to me that one of Felicity's friends is the pink power ranger, with whom I was mildly obsessed, back when the power rangers were cool.

Well, last summer I started watching Felicity and the snobby parts of me criticized its melodrama, but the guilty-indulgence side of me kept watching. I also started thinking that watching Felicity could help me solve my real-life problems. For example, how Felicity is going to finance her education in the city is a recurring issue in the first few episodes. I watched and listened intently hoping that the ten-year old T.V. show would enlighten me on how to avoid student debt. It didn't. Her parents choose to support her decision to attend such a high-priced institution and foot her tuition bill.

Anyway, when I don't feel compelled to do homework, which is all-too-often, I entertain myself with Felicity, and right now she is in her last semester and realizes all her education (and the dollars she, or rather, her parents, spent obtaining it) hasn't really provided her with a life map. She seems to have no definite future outside of college, and the "real" real world beckons. So, I've felt sort of a kinship with this fictional Felicity Porter.

I still don't know how the series ends yet, but despite that the show is pretty trite and that a lot of the drama hinges on love triangles and unwanted pregnancies, I feel that I have gleaned some insights.

#1) So, the 'tagline' of the show is "She went to college to find love* and instead found herself." Cheesy to the extreme. But I think if I had a tagline for my college drama it would be, "She went to college so she could prove that she was doing something with her life but instead realized that she needed to find herself." Maybe college, and the other crazy situations we put ourselves in as we try to race down the fast-track to success aren't always about how many marketable skills we obtain, but how we get to know ourselves. I guess that any college freshman learns this, but I feel that I am learning it with a new profundity.

#2) The show is a self-titled "college drama" but I swear those kids hardly ever do homework. Sometimes they complain about homework and sometimes they get bad grades, but it's not really about school. I think I know why this is: school is not the most important thing in life (also it wouldn't be the most interesting thing to portray on television, and ratings mater...). The relationships we have with other people will matter a lot more than whether we got an A in organic chemistry (even though Ben did) and will also bring us a lot more personal fulfillment.

#3) Student debt is burdensome and horrible, but if you are becoming the person you want to be it is worth it. Although some routes to self-fulfillment are cheaper than others, but could you ever imagine taking back the experiences you are having in the place you are?

So, I suppose if I meditated on this more, I could come up with more life lessons, but three is enough for one sitting.

*She drastically changed her college plans after this boy she'd loved from afar happened to write the most perfect thing in her yearbook.