The quotable wisdom of Joey Potter

If you ever feel like you’re not completely over Dawson’s Creek, don’t worry you’re in good company. Actually, you’re in PERFECT company, because you’ve got Katie Holmes, aka Joey Potter, in your corner, too. For six seasons we watched the love triangle between Joey-Dawson-Pacey and honestly, considering that was one of the best love stories of the late ’90s, we should never get over it, ever. And Katie isn’t getting over it, either.

“I don’t know if I have moved past it, but I don’t really care,” she told ELLE Canada for their January issue, “I had a ball doing it, and it’s really nice to be a part of something that did affect people. And it created a lot of opportunities for all of us. You can’t really ask for much more than that.” And if we could ask for something more, I think it would just be for Katie to come and re-binge the entire series with us on lazy Saturday mornings, because we’re all guilty of that at least once a week.

Now that I’ve got you thinking about pulling out some DVDs and visiting Capeside once again, remember that we basically learned everything wise about life from our girl Joey. She helped us all grow up, in one way or another. Seriously, Joey Potter was an underrated genius. We went back and revisited some of her finest quotes (thank you IMDB), and were bowled over by how wise that little lady in overalls was. Seriously, you don’t even need to know the context of her quotes to glean some wisdom from them.

On accepting change: “I’ve always had this tendency to assume that change, when it happens, can only be for the worse. You know? And lately, I kinda feel like that’s not true, like whatever waiting for me out there may not be that bad. And even if it is, then not knowing about it might actually be the good part.”

On unreasonable beauty standards: “I thought that this is what I wanted. For you to see me as beautiful. But the truth is, that’s not really what I want at all. I want you to look at me and see the person that you’ve always known and realize that what we’ve had is so much more incredible than just some passing physical attraction. ‘Cause you know what? It’s just make-up – and hairspray – and I’ll be back to being Joey. Just Joey. The too tall girl that lives on the wrong side of the creek.” 

On the nature of old friendships: “Mistakes were made, hearts were broken, harsh lessons learned, but all of that has receded into fond memory now. How does it happen? Why are we so quick to forget the bad and romanticize the good? Maybe it’s because we need to believe that the time we spent together actually meant something, that we were there for each other in a time in our lives that defined us all, a time in our lives that we will never forget. I can’t swear this is exactly how it happened. But this is how it felt.”

On believing in yourself: “We all start off in kindergarten thinking that we can be anything that we want to be, and by the time we get here, we’ve somehow lost that feeling. We’ve all started to believe whatever our parents or friends have told us about what we can achieve and who we can be in life, and we’ve forgotten about that possibility we had when we were younger. . .We could all use a daily reminder that, if you believe in yourself, even when the odds seem stacked against you, anything’s possible.”

On dudes: “In many ways, I feel like you’ve partially invented me, Dawson. And that scares me so much.” 

On first love: “Dawson, don’t you ever wonder where this is going, where we are exactly? I mean, is this just the first act or is our story ended and we’re just too stupid to realize it?”

On second love: “Pacey, I love you. You know that. And it’s very real. It’s so real that it’s kept me moving, mostly running from it, never ready for it.”

On sexism: “Well, Principal Green said the mural should focus on what unifies us as a school. And if you think about it, nothing really unifies us. Even our mascot is divisive. The Minute Man – right there you’ve alienated half the student population.” 

On treating people (and yourself) with respect: “I’d like to tell today’s youth that no matter where life takes you, big cities, small towns, you’ll inevitably come across small minds. People who think that they’re better than you are. People who think that material things, or being pretty or popular automatically makes you a worth while human being. I’d like to tell today’s youth that none of these things matter unless you have strength of character, integrity, sense of pride, and if you’re lucky enough to have any of these things, don’t ever sell them. Don’t ever sell out. So when you meet a person for the first time, please don’t judge them by their station on life, because, who knows, that person just might end up being your best friend. Thank you.”

No, Joey. THANK YOU.

Images via here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.