Francesca Saunders

It is ugly and embarrassing to realize you depend so heavily on positive reinforcement from others.

We won’t love each other in any season because you will never love me like I need to be loved. Because even if you wanted to love me (which you don’t) I would never let you.

There are days when I want to curl up so deeply in the pockets of your bed that the light forgets I’m there.

I am learning more and more that we live in a society that inherently and subconsciously teaches people that it is pathetic or weak to ask for help.

Am I having the time of my life yet?

In honor of October 1st, also known as the day that Gilmore Girls drops on Netflix, here are some of the most important life lessons I learned from the show that effectively shaped my middle school and high school years.

I was too old to be dumped for the first time, which might explain why it felt different than it should, or at least what I had always imagined it to be.

I wish you happiness. In the simplest, purest form. Not all the time, not in bouts that hit you like lightning and leave you like waves receding from the shoreline, but total sum happiness.

I talk about fitness a lot. Because I love it.

Going “home” starts to lose its meaning. Home can be a friend’s couch, a group of people, a rooftop – it becomes more of a feeling, of comfort and familiarity, rather than one physical place.

Hair is just hair, it does not define you, it will grow back, and it speaks nothing to your inner value as a person. But a haircut can teach you something.

Thank you for treating me with the respect all women deserve and teaching me that all women deserve respect. Thank you for raising me in a way where the only “daddy issue” I have is holding all men to a high standard.