Where You Lead Series

[carolinecarson]

Where You Lead: How Gilmore Girls Mirrors My Life (Gilmore Girls a Year in the Life - Winter)

So, we have finished going through the seasons of the Gilmore Girls series, now we are moving on to Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life. Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life goes through all the season of the year starting with the first of four episodes being winter.

Winter - This episode talks through how Rory struggles to find a steady job and balance her personal life. Emily is grieving the death of her husband Richard, which causes more tension on her and Lorelai's relationship after the way Lorelai acted at her father's funeral.

I relate to the episode more than I do any episode throughout anything in Gilmore Girls. I am exactly like Rory, where I struggle to balance my personal life, whether that be friends, family, or relationships. I have 5 jobs and I love each of them, but I feel like Rory and I are the same in wanting to give our work lives our all, over our personal lives. Over the past year, I have lost more people than I could have ever imagined. I lost someone who was more like my grandmother (meme) than my mom's mom has ever been to me. I also lost someone whom I thought of as a grandfather. At Meme's funeral, I had never felt that type of loss or hole in my heart ever. My mom and grandmother ended up getting in a huge fight because my grandmother, CC, felt like I had never loved her like I loved Meme. The amount of disappointment I experienced from that fight, they had killed me. Of course, I love my grandmother, but never once she was never there for us when we needed her; she has only been there when it was convenient for her. Meme had always been someone who was there whenever I needed someone, and even though she wasn't my blood grandmother, that just shows the love she had for people.

[carolinecarson]

Where You Lead: How Gilmore Girls Mirrors My Life (season 7, ep. 21)

Back at it again this week with our second-to-last week of our blog series of how Gilmore Girls mirrors my life. Today, we will be covering the episode "Unto the Breach".

This episode is when Rory graduates from Yale. The amount of excitement and pride Lorelai feels for Rory is more than she could've ever imagined. During this episode, Luke sews together a bunch of tents so Rory can have her graduation party and end her college experience with one last Stars Hollow Bang.

As I just submitted my application to Clemson University today, my mom called me and just started crying, telling me how proud she is of me, and she is so lucky that she is my mom. As I was writing my personal essay to submit, my stepfather helped me edit, fix, and do everything he could to make it the best he could. Today, I have seen how my mom relates to Lorelai's emotions and how much she truly loves me. While I was working on the last bit of my personal essay with my stepfather, I felt so grateful to have someone in my life who is willing to step in and help whenever I need him too, just like Luke was to Rory.

I am so grateful for everyone in my life who has been here for me through this crazy journey of high school. From my mom, father, sister, stepfather, and everyone in between, I have been so overwhelmed with the love and support that have been given to me.

[carolinecarson]

Where You Lead: How Gilmore Girls Mirrors My Life (Season 6, ep. 7)

Welcome back to blog post two for the week. This time we are diving into season 6 episode 7 as it is Rory's 21st birthday.

As Rory's 21st Birthday approaches, Richard and Emily throw her a big fancy dinner party at their home. As her original plans were to be in Atlantic City playing Blackjack with Lorelai as soon as she turns 21. Rory and Lorelai are not on good terms in this season, and Rory moved in with her grandparents.

While my mom and I have never had a fight as big as the one that Rory and Lorelai had. We have always had our moments, but we have promised ourselves to never let it get as bad as this was for Lorelai and Rory. Ever since I can remember, my mom and I have always planned to be in Atlantic City playing Blackjack on my 21st birthday, especially because it will be my golden birthday, since I was born on the 21st!

[carolinecarson]

Where You Lead: How Gilmore Girls Mirrors My Life (season 5, episode 7)

Welcome back to this week's two-post on how Rory and Lorelai Gilmore lived my life before I lived mine. Today and I am talking about my favorite episode of the entire show, "You Jump I Jump Jack". This episode is one that I might not relate to quite yet, but I feel as if I will soon.

Logan Huntzberger once said, "People can live a hundred years without really living for a minute." This episode takes us on the journey of Logan, showing Rory what the Life or Death Brigade truly is. It is the last thing Rory expects to see after the long car ride when Logan "kidnaps" her to show her what the brigade is like. Rory expected a fraternity-like scenario where everyone is drunk idiots, but the Life and Death Brigade is full of wealthy members that is known for their extravagant stunts that emphasize living life to the fullest. Their motto is "In omnia paratus", which is Latin for "Ready for anything".

As I start my application to Clemson University this Friday, I want to embrace living my life to the fullest for my last year of high school. I have focused my life on being serious and successful in my high school and work career. My motto for this year, I have decided, is going to be "In omina paratus". I want to be ready for anything that comes my way and live my last year as a kid to the fullest.

[carolinecarson]

Where You Lead: How Gilmore Girls Mirrors My Life (season 4, ep. 15)

Welcome back to the second post for this week. Today we will be diving into season 4.

Season 4 episode 15 talks about a shopping spree that Emily, Lorelai, and Rory go on because Emily is lonely. Just to refresh everyone's memory, Lorelai and Emily and quite the opposite mother-daughter duo. This shopping spree is actually awful for Lorelai and Rory because Emily wants to shop at all these expensive stores and buy all these expensive things, when that is not how Rory and Lorelai shop or do things. Lorelai and Rory want to shop for pizza purses or fluffy pens, things like this. My mom and I have similar tastes, just like Rory and Lorelai. My grandmother is quite the opposite, just like Emily is. My mom and I have literally learned hwo to deal with my grandmother by watching this show.

[carolinecarson]

Where You Lead: How Gilmore Girls Mirrors My Life (season 3, ep. 3)

On this week's two post about my life and Gilmore Girls we are diving into season 3 and 4.

Season 3 episode 3 starts with Rory receiving her Harvard application and immediately begins to stress. I had a similar experience when I received my ALA Palmetto Girls Application. Just like Rory, this was something I had worked for my whole life. I began to stress about getting it done, and also making it perfect. After we turned in our application, some of us were lucky enough to get called back for an interview. When I got accepted for the interview, this is where my stress and anxiety about having the perfect answers to the questions, the perfect outfit, the perfect everything, started to kick in, just like Rory. Rory was so worried about making everything perfect for this one school that I feel she became lost about what other options were out there.

Join me back this week for season 4.

[carolinecarson]

Where You Lead: How Gilmore Girls Mirrors My Life (Season 2, Ep. 4)

"The Road Trip to Harvard"

Season two, episode four of Gilmore Girls starts with Lorelai having a mid-life crisis and breaking off her engagement to Rory's professor, Max Medina. Lorelai and Rory take a spontaneous road trip to Harvard, and on their way, they stop at a Bed and Breakfast called the Cheshire Cat Inn. The whole point of this trip was so Lorelai could run away from the reality of her life, and not knowing what to do now that she is not engaged to Max. Rory ends up in one of the class lecture rooms at Harvard, and it inspires Rory more to work toward her lifelong dream of getting into Harvard.

After my parents' divorce, my mom, sister, and I took an extremely out-of-the-blue trip to Greenville, South Carolina. We rented an Air B&B and it ended up being a crazy cat house, where it was Alice and Wonderland themed, which is crazy because the Inn Lorelai and Rory stayed at was called the Cheshire Cat Inn. After I soon took a trip to Clemson, South Carolina, and fell in love with the campus, and the school. This is when I really decieded that my future waits for me in Clemson.

[carolinecarson]

Where You Lead: How Gilmore Girls Mirrors My Life (Pilot)

Twice a week, I will dive into how the Netflix original series Gilmore Girls relates to my life.

Episode one of Gilmore Girls sets the scene for the rest of the season. The show is set in a small town of Stars Hollow, Connecticut, where Lorelai (mom) and Rory (daughter) Gilmore live. The opening scene starts with the mother-daughter duo meeting at Luke's Diner for coffee. While in the diner, two men are traveling, and one, named Joey, decides he is going to make his move on Lorelai. Lorelai shoots him down, and he heads back to his friend. Rory gets to the diner, and Lorelai gets up to get Rory some coffee. Lorelai turns around, and Joey is back at her table, now hitting on her daughter. Lorelai goes and confronts Joey and tells him that Rory is her daughter, and his response was, "Wow. You do not look old enough to have a daughter.". The episode goes on where Rory gets into Chilton, and Lorelai needs to ask her parents for money to afford the tuition for Rory's new school. The only slight problem is, Lorelai does not talk to her parents. When she got pregnant with Rory at 16, she left Hartford and started her own life in Stars Hollow without her parents. She talks to her parents, and they agree to pay for Rory's tuition at Chilton, only if she and Rory come and have dinner with them every Friday night.

My mom and sister have always been my best friends. We have been through so much together, from my parents divorcing and my mom barely being able to survive with the paycheck she left with, to the craziest of spontaneous trips we take. One time, my mom and I went to a concert in Charleston, South Carolina, and my mom was hit on by a cowboy who was in the pit with us. The next thing you know, my mom is talking to a friend she made, and the cowboy is offering to buy me a drink (I was 14). My mom turns to him and says, "Oh, so you met my daughter?" His response was, "Wow, you don't look old enough to have a daughter, and you don't look young enough to be a daughter." As you can see, my mom and I have a way with acting like Lorelai and Rory. To add to the similarities, Lorelai and her mom, Emily Gilmore, have a very rocky relationship, which puts tension on Rory and her grandmother's relationship. My mom and grandmother have always had a rough relationship, which I believe is why I am so close with my mom and Rory and so close to Lorelai. The way the show continues relates to my mom and I so much that we have learned how to deal with and not deal with situations by watching the show.

Next time, I will pick an episode from season 2 and continue telling my crazy life story!