90210

I pretty much learned everything about sex, alcohol and life in high school from Beverly Hills: 90210. (Team Brenda!) 

This show really opened my eyes to the ‘real world’.  I mean, when we had sex ed in elementary school, I literally thought only white people did it.  I confidently told my classmates that there HAD to be another way, because my parents were Korean, and they definitely did NOT do that. 

I lived vicariously through the popular girls on the show and envisioned having hot boyfriends like them (even though Luke Perry was like 40 when he was filming).  I used to try to purse my lips like Brenda thinking it was sexy, but it never really worked.  (It was difficult with braces and glasses.) 

When Dylan broke up with Brenda for the umpteenth time, and she listened to REM’s “Losing My Religion” on repeat in her room, I always thought that would be how I would deal with my first heartbreak.  (The actual situation years and years later involved Boone’s Farm and puking in a friend’s bathroom.)

I always identified most with Andrea (obviously).  She was the smartest one.  Ok… fine, she was also a big dork and wasn’t what you called, hot.  I was forever traumatized when she got pregnant after her first time with a boy, while all the other whores on the show never had a problem.  But that’s how real life is, right?

It’s shows like these that define a generation.  I laugh now about the fantasy world I thought high school would be.  I actually wouldn’t say I had “fun” in high school.  I think back at high school with regret over SAT scores and relive the stress over trying to get into a good college. 

College was where I really felt I grew up and learned a lot about myself and the world around me.  Things weren’t as black and white as I thought they were.  And this process of exploration and discovery was fun!  (That sounded like I dabbled in drug experimentation but that’s not the case.)  I made great friends and kept the ones that mattered.

But seriously, Kelly was a back-stabbing bitch, right?

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