All the ways Rory Gilmore changed my life

Rory Gilmore changed my life. Or, rather, she guided me through my life. She led me through every single step of my adolescence, to the point where turning 23 (a year older than Rory is at the end of Gilmore Girls) was my most devastating milestone yet. I no longer had my guidepost, my shining star. I would have to go my own way.

Envying caffeine-addled, super-studious, and beautiful Rory would have been the death of me if I hadn’t found her so inspiring. Gilmore Girls started when I was 9, and I found myself gripped to the screen early on, desperate to keep up with the goings-on of the fast-talking ladies (and some dudes) of Stars Hollow. Most of all I was enthralled with Rory, and found her to be my biggest inspiration. I saw myself in her – yes, even at 9 – but I also wanted to be her. These are all the ways Rory Gilmore changed my life:

She made me more studious.
I have always loved reading. I was the biggest nerd in my school, annoying everyone by winning the creative writing prize every month, and taking out at least 12 library books a week. This dropped off a little when I found myself relentlessly bullied and a little embarrassed for my over-achieving. Cue Rory. Her near-obsessive perfectionism and pursuit of the Harvard dream, along with constant reading for pleasure, prompted me to take my own studies a little more seriously. As I grew with Rory, seeing her incredible grades made me reach for my own better results. Her graduation made me reconsider the decision I had previously made to get a job straight after high school. I fell back in love with learning, school, and reading – all thanks to Rory.

She made me more mature.
Lorelai Gilmore was lovable, but far from perfect. When Lorelai was down on her luck, breaking down about men, or struggling to feed the family – Rory stepped in. Going to Emily and Richard for help, looking after her mom bedridden mom in the pit of a post-Luke depression, making sure there was food in the house…Rory was inspirational in her complete care of her mother. Rory was ever the grown up and it was awesome to watch.

She made me feel more independent around boys.
Rory likes boys. She liked Dean, a lot, even almost letting him distract her from her studies for five minutes. She liked Jess enough to leave Dean behind. She liked some more boys, and then she liked Logan enough to steal a yacht. However, Rory never liked boys enough to let them get in the way of her vision for her life: right down to that last heartbreaking moment when she rejected Logan’s proposal to follow her dream career. Rory’s attitude of “want them, don’t need them” (except in some slightly darker Dean days) made her the coolest cucumber and inspired me to always keep focused on me.

She taught me about confidence.
Rory never really wanted to do anything dangerous (again, except for that one time) so the things that she was dying to do weren’t going to hurt anyone else. Nobody ever told her what to do, though. They tried. When her mother didn’t want her to go out with Jess, she did anyway. When everyone dissuaded her against Yale, she went. When her grandparents tried to bribe her to go back to school, she didn’t. When she wanted to go back, she did. When Logan and her grandparents wanted her to marry Logan, she didn’t. Over and over again Rory defied the wishes of everyone around her to follow her dreams, with neither love nor money convincing her otherwise. Rory could teach us all a lot about being more assertive, but she definitely taught me more than a few lessons about confidence and self-love along the way.

She truly inspired my life’s path.
I watched Rory grow up, and I plucked out more than a few ideas of how to live my life. In what I call the “Rory Gilmore Trajectory” I read a lot (including tons from the Rory Gilmore reading list…sue me), worked hard at school, looked after my mom, listened to a ton of music, went to university, got bangs, developed a caffeine addiction, and followed a career in journalism. Rory inspired me every step of the way, so she’s to blame for that little incident I had with a yacht…kidding