Many people like to escape their problems by leaving the real world and entering the world of science fiction or fantasy. Where fantastic adventures, witches, spells, aliens, and advanced technology are realities and commonalities. But I'm different. When I have to deal with shit in my life, I prefer to know that I'm not alone. That there are other people out there that are annoyed by pep rallies, never quite fit in at school, had a small but close group of friends, and had not-so-popular interests. While I can relate to various aspects of that in Harry Potter, Doctor Who, and all of my other unrealistic obsessions, the fantastical and/or scientific aspects tend to make me feel less capable of relating to the story lines, the characters, etc. All it does is make me wish I got a letter from Hogwarts, or that one day a man in a blue police box would someday whisk me away to see incredible new worlds. And, as they say in Les Miserables, "there are dreams that cannot be."
And so, when I discovered realistic fiction, I discovered that this was what I was made for. I can understand it. I can understand the problems and joys and everything that the main characters have to deal with. I used to have this wish to someday create a television show about a smart, outcast type girl that other smart outcast types could relate to. When I discovered Daria, I felt I didn't need to do that anymore. The show just made sense to me, because I could understand Daria and Jane's outlook towards their school, their peers, their teachers, their families. Why? Because I had been in their shoes. Okay, maybe my experiences never exactly resembled theirs, but it was always close enough.
And the same goes for Squaresville, which I only recently discovered and finished binge-watching on YouTube. I could understand the dreams, desires, fears, insecurities, etc. of Zelda, Esther, and Percy, because their problems made sense to me. Friend drama, struggling to finish an essay during lunch, uncertainty regarding the future...I witnessed or experienced every story arc, every vignette, every minor detail of Squaresville in some shape or form.
These shows and stories struck a chord with me because somehow, people who were total strangers to me managed to capture my feelings and squeeze it into a 20-something minute long comedy show, or a YouTube dramedy whose longest episode was about 8 or 9 minutes. It's magical and crazy and incredible to know that there are other people out there that feel the same sort of things that I feel. So many people that there are entire books, television shows, movies, dedicated to girls that I can understand. Daria Morgendorffer, Angela Chase, Lindsey Weir, Zelda Waring, and even Enid Coleslaw (I am *dying* to read Ghost World right now...I'm thinking about buying the book online)...
thank you for understanding me, almost better than anyone else.
~Abbey xoxo