Love in the Time of
Gilmore Girls
Photo by Hannah Pap Rocki
by fourth year Danielle Meinert
Note: this is mostly spoiler-free. It will not ruin plotlines. It is
written for fans, but also those who have never seen the show.
Emily is Lorelai’s wealthy mother (Rory’s grandmother).
L
ove is personal. How we give it reflects how we wish
to receive it. Familial love wraps us in expectations,
preparations, and implied declarations that leave us
worried about fulfilling what our elders established for us, or
push us to create our own realities. This is never more true
than in the early 2000s dramedy Gilmore Girls.
I grew up watching Gilmore Girls every day after school in the seventh and eighth grade, and it shaped how I express love
today. I always sided with Lorelai and her daughter Rory when they fought with Lorelai’s equally-stubborn mother, Emily. As I
rewatched the first seasons this month, I realized I often failed to humanize Emily, dismissing her as a selfish, classist villain.
She acts to ensure that her family can live the best lives possible; she institutes Friday Night Dinners to become close to them,
regretting the sixteen years she wasn’t invited into their lives. When she asks Mia, Lorelai’s boss, for photos of the younger
Lorelai and Rory, she’s bridging the memories she was not allowed to participate in when Lorelai ran away. She’s rebuilding
familial relationships by mending the pieces scattered across Connecticut – strewn everywhere but her own home. Emily
constructed their lives so that Lorelei would be accepted into the Gilmore’s social community, that she would have a steady
job, and that she could build her own family. Accepting that her daughter would reject these privileges is incomprehensible:
why would Lorelai refuse comfort and structure, the two traits that Emily requires in her own life, to choose middle-class
hardship? Emily does not see Lorelai’s choices as necessary and personal, but as controlled attacks against the love she
provides.
Emily’s goal to secure her family’s future manifests in her obsession with public appearances. Even when DAR meetings
and garden club luncheons feel shallow, they represent her need to find the love she could not have before. By failing to
sew her family’s futures together, she must create a social fabric that conceals loose strings and forges stronger non-familial
relationships. She expresses her love by seeking to maintain a high social status; this aids Rory to achieve her dreams through
Emily’s ties to a private high school, and through the university Rory eventually attends.
Lorelai and Emily fail to mend their relationship because they are the same–stubbornly abiding by their separate rules. It
is so easy to dismiss Emily Gilmore as an unsympathetic character, but her intentions complicate her. The love for her family,
regardless of her distorted efforts to express it, proves she is a human deserving of her version of love in return. Navigating the
world can be a dangerous, hurtful process, and our enemy’s sense of hurt might reveal itself as distance from us or as desperate
attempts to hold on. You and your enemy, Lorelai and Emily, may have the same stubborn tendencies. Seek to understand
their form of love. You might just have competing strategies.
A
P o s i t i v e
P r e s s
P u b l i c a t i o n
Monday, November 10th, 2014 // VOLUME V, ISSUE 5
How to Improve Your Every Waking
Moment
by third year Asher Orr
Photo by Ellen Wilson
I
n a New York Times interview with Neil Blumenthal, the founder of the hypersuccessful Warby Parker eyeglasses company, he was asked: “If you could re-do your
business venture, what is the one thing you would change?” Since the company
has raised $56 million from investors, sold over 1 million pairs of glasses, and employed
over 100 people in the timespan of four years (it was founded in 2010 while Blumenthal
was in college), there are undoubtedly thousands of variables Blumenthal could have
changed. His answer? More sleep. Despite the endless business processes he could have
adjusted to boost Warby Parker’s rise to success, he cited getting enough sleep as the key
component in making sound, creative decisions in not just the office, but all aspects of
life.
As college students, we often perceive sleep as something we can “catch up on” during
weekends or whose deprivation we can remedy with a dose of caffeine. With school,
work, and personal commitments requiring our constant attention, the image of the
zombie-like, sleep-deprived college student is something with which we are all too
familiar with. Researchers from Brown University even say that we’re the most sleepdeprived group in the United States, and that most college students do not consider the
lack of sleep to be a “major” problem.
What?! That statement is downright frightening because sleep, ironically, plays a role
in every waking moment. Creativity, productivity, decision-making, memory, hormone
levels, and even your body’s ability to physically heal are all affected by how much or how
little you sleep. To quote Maiken Nedergaard, a Danish biologist leading groundbreaking
research into sleep’s effect on the brain, “It has to have a basic evolutionary function.
Otherwise, it would have been eliminated.”
Nedergaard’s research suggests that there is a brain equivalent of the body’s lymphatic
system (the system that removes waste from your body) to act as a neural garbage
truck, clearing waste like beta-amyloid, a protein associated with Alzheimer’s disease.
Furthermore, her research indicates that the brain works this system the most while
you’re asleep. According to Nedergaard, sleep acts as a filter for the brain—and if we
deprive ourselves of it, we may be allowing the things that cause neural degeneration and
a slew of other issues to pile up.
With sleep being increasingly viewed as a commodity in our 24/7 lifestyles, I call
upon you to dedicate more attention to what we’re supposed to spend roughly a third
of our lives doing. A few adjustments to your schedule can provide the extra 1-2 hours
that could make all the difference. Sleeping goes beyond eliminating under-eye circles
or improving your mood—it’s essential to maintaining the good physical and mental
health that is all-important in living your life to its fullest. In the wise words of Arianna
Huffington, “Get enough sleep and you will be more productive, more effective, and
more likely to enjoy your life.”
Don’t Allow the World to
Make You Mean
by third year Terri Cunningham
Photo by Christina Cannon
M
iddle school wasn’t very easy for me. After my
transition to Gwinnett County in the third grade, I
put on a few pounds. By fifth grade, I was a chubby
kid. I was the kid whose mom received dirty looks from the
cashier when we went to McDonald’s, like, “Now, you know
she should be at Subway.” I had to shop in the Misses section
of Macy’s because nothing in the Girls’ section fit. I had the
same sweat suit in five colors: gray, black, white, navy, and light
blue. (My favorite was the navy one.) At age 12, I stood at 5’8”, so
compared to the other kids, I was just big. I was always met with
a grand display of surprise when I told the employee at Foot
Locker my shoe size. Naturally, I was a target. Not because I was
funny-looking. In general, we were all funny-looking, but I was
funny-looking and big, so my “funny-looking-ness” stood out.
I received very little positive affirmation as far as looks go. I
would get anxious walking by a group of kids in anticipation of
the laughs and comments I would try not to hear. Gradually, it
became harder to shake it off. By high school, I was insecure,
depressed, and had no sense of identity. I always had friends
though. Not to toot my own horn, but I had personality, a
great smile, and a contagious laugh. I had a trustworthy,
compassionate, and dependable disposition. I was empathetic
and positive. These are qualities that I have been told about
myself. You’d have to look far and wide to find someone who has
a bad word to say about me, and in this, I take much pride. In
this, I find my identity.
It wasn’t easy. When I was going through this period, I often
used to ask myself, “Why me?” Looking back, I’m grateful for
that experience because I love who I am today. I love how I treat
people. I love how considerate and empathetic I am. I love that
it makes me uneasy to make fun of others. I love that I feel an
obligation to brighten people’s days. I love that my friends know
they can come to me if they need help. I love being the person
who makes direct eye contact with you when you are telling a
story even though everyone is talking over you.
You would be taking a step backward to let the difficulties of
life make you worse than you were before. See, it is my belief
that challenges are the sculptor to our statue. This is idealistic,
of course. There are people who have far more opposition than
I have had, of course, but I choose to stay optimistic. I make a
choice to see the bright side, to see the purpose in all things. For
that reason, everything in my life will be okay simply because I
believe so.
THE CHAPEL BELL IS A GROUP COMMITTED TO CHANGING THE
WORLD. BY CREATING AND DISTRIBUTING A UNIQUE, CAMPUS- WIDE
PUBLICATION, WE AIM TO INSPIRE STUDENTS TOWARD ACTION AND
PROMOTE POSITIVE IDEAS ON CAMPUS AND BEYOND.
TCB: A POSITIVE PRESS PUBLICATION | | 2 | | VOL. V, ISSUE 5
Freedom in Moderation
by third year Alexsis Skeen
Photo by Taylor Canerday
C
Know When to Quit
by fourth year Jenna Hegarty
Q
uitters never win. At least, that’s what we grow
up thinking. While there is much to be said for
following through, there is also something to
be said for knowing what you want and going after it. Shy
of quitting, we continue pursuing goals that once meant
something to us but no longer do.
This stigma is unfair. When we fundamentally believe
quitting is wrong, we end up doing things that we don’t
enjoy, just to say we stuck to it. We end up stuck. We burn
ourselves out with the effort required to keep doing what we
don’t want to, to continue being what we’re not.
Growing up, we take on labels like “smart” or “athletic”
or “musical.” Then we let those labels dictate what we do
because they mean people have expectations for us that, at
some level, we feel we should meet. We sail along a course
someone else has charted for us. Yet as we experience new
things, we discover our interests and passions. We find they
are not always what we think or even what others or ourselves
expect.
We don’t always know what we want. We try things because
we think they are right for us. Sometimes we are wrong.
Sometimes our circumstances dictate we have to do the
things we don’t want to. We need a roof over our heads and
food in our bodies. We have to make sacrifices. We can’t have
the exact life we want all the time. But we can try.
Stability is comforting, which makes quitting difficult. It
creates opportunity, a chance to devote ourselves to our
passions. Remind yourself that if you are willing to put in the
work, you deserve the career and life you want. Quitting can
move us closer to living the lives we imagine.
If you’re not where you want to be, think about how you’re
going to get there. Maybe that’s a different major. Maybe
that’s a different city. Maybe that’s not college. Do not
immediately jump ship, just think. You have to be in the right
position to quit. You’ll know it when you’re in it.
When the winds change, we adjust and sail in a new
direction. Sometimes that means quitting. That’s okay.
ontrary to popular belief, the infamous Arch can
reveal a lot more to us than just our futures at
The University of Georgia. While students boast
about the Arch’s power in determining if they will graduate,
few know the true meaning behind this historic university
monument.
The Arch was initially commissioned in 1856. No one
knows the exact year it was built, but it was sometime
between 1856 and 1858. For security purposes, The Arch was
built with a gate to protect the campus at night, but around
1885, the gate was removed from below the Arch (likely as a
prank). After more than 150 years, the Arch still stands firmly
today—a symbol of the state’s flagship university.
The Arch was carefully crafted to have three pillars
representing wisdom, justice and moderation. According to
Webster’s Dictionary, moderation is an avoidance of extremes
in one’s actions, beliefs, or habits with synonyms that include
discipline and self-control. In accordance with the dictionary
definition and UGA’s reputation for nightlife, moderation in
Athens has come to mean a balance between studying and
partying. However, this pillar was meant to represent more.
Moderation fosters balance in all aspects of life. As college
students, there should be time for self exploration and
building relationships; serving the community and striving
for personal goals; devoting time to organizations and time
for relaxation. We compartmentalize our lives into categories:
friends, family, school, work, and clubs. Much like juggling,
we spend time with each one and throw it back into the air
when we are satisfied, only to catch the next one hurtling our
way.
This pillar is meant neither to restrict enjoyment nor
ensure productivity. According to Henry Kissinger, Nobel
Peace Prize recipient and former Secretary of State,
“Moderation is a virtue only in those who are thought to
have an alternative.” This virtue instead grants freedom: the
freedom to choose how we spend our time. From this, we
decide which items to juggle and which to put down.
Exhibiting moderation is a skill extending beyond the hills
of Athens. It’s a way to remember what is important to us—
what we hold most sacred. The act of moderation is a simple
reminder to carve out time for ourselves to do the things
we enjoy. When our time comes to graduate and we walk
underneath the Arch to our next stage of life, we can carry
this pillar with us.
[
Follow us :
@TheChapelBell
/TheChapelBell
@thechapelbelluga
/thechapelbell
]
TCB: A POSITIVE PRESS PUBLICATION | | 3 | | VOL. V, ISSUE 5