My College Years
My first update in a long time that is actually about my life rather than just a list of films I've seen. I have something to say, but it will take me several paragraphs, as is my style, to actually get there. We start off this story Freshman year (for those unfamiliar, I am in my senior year at Vassar now).
I came to college and was pretty unhappy. I liked college itself, but I'm the kind of person who usually takes a while to get close to anyone (which is probably why I don't date often), and I had a great group of friends in High School and I didn't just bond with people instantly like some did Freshman week or whatever. But within a couple weeks I became really good friends with a guy on my hall and ended up moving in with him as we both had issues with our roommates.
Anyways, we had some great times then basically he just stopped wanting to be friends with me, and the only two other friends I had (who I had introduced him to) decided they would rather spend time with him. He was still my roommate at this time of course, and he wouldn't even talk to me. He'd kind of grunt when he came in the door if I had anyone over. It was pretty terrible, and I was in a flux.
I started reaching out to all sorts of people that I knew in order to find someone to spend time with. I ended up spending some time watching skate videos and playing tony hawk 2 with this guy named Jacob. It was fun, and we were becoming friends, but I think the thing that soldified us as best friends was I said to him, basically, you've shown me some stuff you like, i think you might like watching this: Sports Night (for those who don't know a late 90's TV show). We were also going through similar issues (he also felt snubbed by someone he considered a close friend), and we became best friends thereafter.
Freshman summer I go home and now I miss college, I don't get a job very quickly and my parents are always bugging me, and I get fired from the one job I do get, which isn't a self-esteem booster. I start watching a lot of TV again, and I watch a couple episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Wanting to know why a certain strange thing happened in the show, I end up buying all the previous seasons and watching them. I'm sure it sounds corny, but I will always associate that show with me coming out of depression, so whenever I am sad I can watch a couple eps and come out of it.
I come back sophomore year, and I tell Jacob (who, like me, was sad when we finished Sports Night) that I have a new show for us to watch. And over the course of sophomore year, Jacob and I, now just two doors away from each other, become closer and watch all of Buffy as well. When we finish it, it feels like the end of an era almost. It felt like such an accomplishment that we watched every episode together (even if I had seen them all before).
We start watching Angel but only get through season 1 before the school year ends (I ended up watching Angel that summer while Jacob watched it by himself later on). Then it's junior year, and Jacob is gone. He is spending the whole year in England, and as he was, at the time, pretty much my one really great friend and my only link to social interaction, I become pretty frightened. But I am in filmmaking, and my partner (not in a gay way...well, actually very much in a gay way) is Colin who I sort of knew but not really.
Colin and I talk about film and have a great time, and I start to mention my enjoyment of Buffy (at this time having seen both Buffy and Angel). He basically says that it always kinda seemed like crap to him. He saw a couple episodes sometimes when he'd come back from swim practice, and they never looked good. So I am just like fine whatevs you are still my BFF. I tell him about Jacob and things above, and he says maybe we should watch Sports Night together. This is towards the end of first semester junior year, so I say let's start when we get back.
We come back, and I am still kinda talking about Buffy, and he says fuck it. Let's watch some of that since you love it so much. So I say well do you want to start where it gets good or just watch some of season 3 or what, and he says no, let's just watch it. Now with Jacob, it was a less hard sell since he loves both horror and cheesy melodrama, but Colin is pretty much a cowboy. He doesn't really like the drama in his life. And he wasn't too into it at first. He didn't even really like 1st season. But we keep watching anyway.
Skip ahead, skip ahead, skip ahead. Towards the end of junior year, we are taking a break from editing by watching an episode of Angel. A friend of ours looks over and is like what's that, and we tell him, and he kinda scoffs or whatever. And I don't even need to defend my babies b/c Colin says, y'know I thought that at first too, but after having watched all these, I think that these are pretty much the best written characters I've ever seen for film/TV. Needless to say, it brought a little tear to my eye (Jacob said something similar a little later, which was really nice too, although I was a little happier about Colin since he didn't even want to be into it).
Well Colin and I kept watching, and we saw each other a couple times over the summer too and picked it back up senior year (including watching Joss' other show Firefly and the film Serenity together). And we get to the point of this really long post.
Colin and I have 5 episodes left of Buffy and 27 episodes left of Angel. That's still a little ways, but I can now see the end. There's a good chance before we leave for this winter break, that we'll be done. Now let's do some math here.
144 episodes of Buffy
110 episodes of Angel
15 episodes of Firefly
+1 movie......
=269 episodes and 1 movie
at slightly less than 3/4 of an hour/episode + 2 hrs/movie is roughly 202 hours of viewing that we've shared. Somewhere around 188 of it, just within the same "universe." To most, this will seem like a waste of time, but to me it looks like a huge accomplishment. To set apart time this often to spend together (not including all the times we've talked about it or laughed about it).
I am sad. I am already nostalgic for the amount of time we've spent in these worlds, silly as it may sound. We will move on to other things, and it just kind of hit me how much this relates to how I'm feeling about college now. As much time as it was, it just wasn't nearly enough, and we'll be moving on and moving apart and losing contact. And I guess I'll always associate those shows and that huge amount of time with this time in my life. And now I guess I have to grow up.
peace.
I came to college and was pretty unhappy. I liked college itself, but I'm the kind of person who usually takes a while to get close to anyone (which is probably why I don't date often), and I had a great group of friends in High School and I didn't just bond with people instantly like some did Freshman week or whatever. But within a couple weeks I became really good friends with a guy on my hall and ended up moving in with him as we both had issues with our roommates.
Anyways, we had some great times then basically he just stopped wanting to be friends with me, and the only two other friends I had (who I had introduced him to) decided they would rather spend time with him. He was still my roommate at this time of course, and he wouldn't even talk to me. He'd kind of grunt when he came in the door if I had anyone over. It was pretty terrible, and I was in a flux.
I started reaching out to all sorts of people that I knew in order to find someone to spend time with. I ended up spending some time watching skate videos and playing tony hawk 2 with this guy named Jacob. It was fun, and we were becoming friends, but I think the thing that soldified us as best friends was I said to him, basically, you've shown me some stuff you like, i think you might like watching this: Sports Night (for those who don't know a late 90's TV show). We were also going through similar issues (he also felt snubbed by someone he considered a close friend), and we became best friends thereafter.
Freshman summer I go home and now I miss college, I don't get a job very quickly and my parents are always bugging me, and I get fired from the one job I do get, which isn't a self-esteem booster. I start watching a lot of TV again, and I watch a couple episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Wanting to know why a certain strange thing happened in the show, I end up buying all the previous seasons and watching them. I'm sure it sounds corny, but I will always associate that show with me coming out of depression, so whenever I am sad I can watch a couple eps and come out of it.
I come back sophomore year, and I tell Jacob (who, like me, was sad when we finished Sports Night) that I have a new show for us to watch. And over the course of sophomore year, Jacob and I, now just two doors away from each other, become closer and watch all of Buffy as well. When we finish it, it feels like the end of an era almost. It felt like such an accomplishment that we watched every episode together (even if I had seen them all before).
We start watching Angel but only get through season 1 before the school year ends (I ended up watching Angel that summer while Jacob watched it by himself later on). Then it's junior year, and Jacob is gone. He is spending the whole year in England, and as he was, at the time, pretty much my one really great friend and my only link to social interaction, I become pretty frightened. But I am in filmmaking, and my partner (not in a gay way...well, actually very much in a gay way) is Colin who I sort of knew but not really.
Colin and I talk about film and have a great time, and I start to mention my enjoyment of Buffy (at this time having seen both Buffy and Angel). He basically says that it always kinda seemed like crap to him. He saw a couple episodes sometimes when he'd come back from swim practice, and they never looked good. So I am just like fine whatevs you are still my BFF. I tell him about Jacob and things above, and he says maybe we should watch Sports Night together. This is towards the end of first semester junior year, so I say let's start when we get back.
We come back, and I am still kinda talking about Buffy, and he says fuck it. Let's watch some of that since you love it so much. So I say well do you want to start where it gets good or just watch some of season 3 or what, and he says no, let's just watch it. Now with Jacob, it was a less hard sell since he loves both horror and cheesy melodrama, but Colin is pretty much a cowboy. He doesn't really like the drama in his life. And he wasn't too into it at first. He didn't even really like 1st season. But we keep watching anyway.
Skip ahead, skip ahead, skip ahead. Towards the end of junior year, we are taking a break from editing by watching an episode of Angel. A friend of ours looks over and is like what's that, and we tell him, and he kinda scoffs or whatever. And I don't even need to defend my babies b/c Colin says, y'know I thought that at first too, but after having watched all these, I think that these are pretty much the best written characters I've ever seen for film/TV. Needless to say, it brought a little tear to my eye (Jacob said something similar a little later, which was really nice too, although I was a little happier about Colin since he didn't even want to be into it).
Well Colin and I kept watching, and we saw each other a couple times over the summer too and picked it back up senior year (including watching Joss' other show Firefly and the film Serenity together). And we get to the point of this really long post.
Colin and I have 5 episodes left of Buffy and 27 episodes left of Angel. That's still a little ways, but I can now see the end. There's a good chance before we leave for this winter break, that we'll be done. Now let's do some math here.
144 episodes of Buffy
110 episodes of Angel
15 episodes of Firefly
+1 movie......
=269 episodes and 1 movie
at slightly less than 3/4 of an hour/episode + 2 hrs/movie is roughly 202 hours of viewing that we've shared. Somewhere around 188 of it, just within the same "universe." To most, this will seem like a waste of time, but to me it looks like a huge accomplishment. To set apart time this often to spend together (not including all the times we've talked about it or laughed about it).
I am sad. I am already nostalgic for the amount of time we've spent in these worlds, silly as it may sound. We will move on to other things, and it just kind of hit me how much this relates to how I'm feeling about college now. As much time as it was, it just wasn't nearly enough, and we'll be moving on and moving apart and losing contact. And I guess I'll always associate those shows and that huge amount of time with this time in my life. And now I guess I have to grow up.
peace.