9 things I learned from Gilmore Girls

One day a few weeks ago I woke up at 5:35 a.m. from a really strange dream where I was living out Gilmore Girls. The weird part was that I was Lorelai, when most people who know me would agree that I am clearly a Rory. So I woke up from this dream, dazed from sleep, and just felt like I had to write this post. Because Gilmore Girls is a rite of passage — these two showed us a mother-daughter relationship like we'd never seen before. We laughed, we cried, and we definitely chose sides in the Battle of the Boyfriends. That's why I felt it was important to follow my hazy, post-dream thought and write this post. Plus, #TeamLogan forever!

1. Experimenting in fashion is encouraged. One of my favorite episodes of Gilmore Girls is the one where Rory starts school at Chilton and Lorelai wakes up late and wears a tie-die crop top, cut-off shorts and cowboy boots under her coat. But then there are the sequin tops and the feather boas and the time Lorelai wore a belt as a necklace. Fashion comes and goes, but memories are forever.

2. It's okay to be quirky. Lorelai is one of the more strange-but-awesome TV personalities, but I think nothing sums this up better than her fuzzy alarm clock. Wouldn't you like mornings a little more if you had a fuzzy clock to wake you up? (Yeah, it didn't work for her either.)

3. Even if the man seems perfect, that doesn't mean he's perfect for you. Oh, Max. Poor, wonderful, sweet Max. From the very beginning, he seemed like the perfect guy. But he just wasn't the man for Lorelai. This is a very helpful tip, but I would recommend figuring it out before the week of your wedding. Poor Sookie.

4. Weird games make life interesting. Lorelai and Rory always made up games to pass the time, which I think is an awesome habit. My personal favorite was "1, 2, 3, He's Yours," in which you count men on the street and have to choose one of them to be your husband. I only wish I had my own Kirk to make it more interesting.

5. Never get too attached to inanimate objects. The agony Rory felt over losing her perfect study tree on the Yale campus seemed so much more real after I went to college. Not all trees are good study trees, so when you find one, NEVER LEAVE IT.

6. The first step in breakup recovery is wallowing. Lorelai may have given some not-so-great advice in her day, but her incessant efforts to get Rory to wallow after her breakup with Dean show just how wise she really was.

7. Don't try to work for your boyfriend's dad's company. It just won't work out.

8. Don't steal a yacht. For obvious reasons.

9. It's cool to be best friends with your mom. I've always been really close to my mom, and I attribute that to both of us being the youngest in our families and the fact that she and I spent so much time together when I was growing up. When I was in high school, I remember talking to a group of girls about my mom and I told them we had sort of a Gilmore Girls relationship, and they were surprisingly envious of that. (I say surprisingly because high school is typically the time when kids do not get along with parents.) We've had our rough patches — just like Lorelai and Rory — but in the end, I'm always so grateful to know that my mom is my best friend.

Image via zap2it.