The Gilmore Project: "The Deer Hunters" (Topic 1 of 2)

The Project:

The Gilmore Project is an experiment in composition form. As a huge fan of the show Gilmore Girls, I have watched and rewatched the episodes several times over. During my last full viewing in early 2018, I noticed myself watching the show differently than I had in the past and realized that there was a lot of personal reflection being stimulated by the events of the show as well as the music and cultural references. As a result, I decided to start a journey in blog form...exploring each episode and how it resonated with me personally. 

Disclaimer: If you have not watched Gilmore Girls but plan to, you'll want to watch each episode before reading these posts. There will 100% of the time be spoilers. I'd be doing this wrong if there weren't. That's the nature of the beast.

As is the nature of an experiment, sometimes you have to change your approach along the way. I've altered the format for this episode's post to see if I like it a little bit better. This may or may not result in a method that sticks. I have a feeling there will be a few more evolutions of structure as I go along.

The Episode: "The Deer Hunters"

Lane: "You hit a deer?"

Rory: "No, I got hit BY a deer."

Rory gets a disappointing grade on an English paper. As a result, she panics and studies incredibly hard for her upcoming Shakespeare exam. After oversleeping following a late night cramming session, Rory is hit by a deer on her way to school. She winds up arriving late and is not allowed to sit for the exam, which is to count for 20% of her final grade in the course.


There were two primary topics that I noted during this episode. Because I tend to get a little wordy, I'll be breaking this episode into two separate posts, each addressing one of the two topics.

Topic #1: Rory Gets a D

Lorelai: “I hate when I’m an idiot and I don’t know it. I like to be aware of my idiocy, to really revel in it, take pictures. I feel we missed a prime Christmas card opportunity.”

Rory: “I’m sorry.”

Lorelai: “You should have told me.”

Rory: “I couldn’t.”

Lorelai: “You couldn’t tell me? You tell me everything.”

Rory: “It was too humiliating.”

Lorelai: “Oh, honey. You once told me that you loved Saved By the Bell. What could be more humiliating than that?”

Rory is used to being a stellar student. Learning seems to come fairly easy to her and she's always been a bright girl. But Chilton poses new challenges. When she receives a "D" on her English paper (her first D ever), she is understandably concerned and disappointed. 

This situation is one that I can so easily understand. I was a pretty good student in high school and--though I did study and it did take me some effort--I graduated with a 4.0. I expected that college would be more difficult, but I expected that my academic success would continue to a relative degree and had not really prepared myself for the possibility of low grades. That lack of mental preparation slapped me square in the face in the middle of the first semester of my sophomore year. 

Physics 2. Ouch. I had excelled at physics in high school and did fairly well in my first semester of physics in freshman year. I knew it would be a bit of a challenge, but the subject suddenly (apparently) went well above my head. I landed a couple of D's on tests and squeaked my way out of that class with a C. It felt like I was such an amazing disappointment.

For a student used to getting A's and maybe the occasional B, a D resulted in such an overwhelming feeling of utter failure. Like Rory, I went through a period of panic following the initial red marked exam. I was frequently reminded by others that "C's get degrees", but that mantra wasn't one that made me feel any better. I just felt stupid. This led to a spiral of feeling overwhelmed by a complete inability to learn the materials that needed to be mastered. Though I did get out of the class with a passing C, I think the panic resulted in a certain feeling of defeat that followed me throughout the semester. I somewhat gave up. Perhaps I could have actually learned the materials better and gotten myself a B, but there was a spiral of misery that led to the idea that physics...well...it just wouldn't be for me.

You'd think that I would have learned from that experience, but apparently...for me...it's never easy accepting anything less than a B. In dental school, I struggled with more than one subject and being away from home and my family compounded the feeling of despair that resulted from the challenge. I frequently called home in tears - to which my dad responded by consistently handing the phone to my mom..."She wants to talk to you." 

I've never been one to deal with stress gracefully. Some breakdowns were worse than others. My mother will often regale others with the story of how I phoned one night so completely inconsolable that she nearly purchased a very expensive airline ticket to come see me the next day. Yet, when she spoke with me on the phone a mere 24 hours later, I had bounced back from my meltdown and was doing just fine. She emphatically asserts that she would have strangled me if she had indeed spent the money just to find me fully recovered.

Lorelai's concern over Rory's panic and frustration results in a discussion over whether Rory is going to Chilton and striving for Harvard admission for herself or for Lorelai's benefit. I absolutely understand this concern as well. Though I didn't really stop to consider it very well along the way, I can now look back and find a good source for debating within myself whether my approach to education and a career were really because they were what I wanted or because I felt that I had something to prove to others. I still can't really give a firm assertion one way or the other, but I am inclined to think that my narrow focus wasn't really based on what I felt would make me happy.

As a result, I'm more inclined to encourage Darian (and likely will do the same for Brecken and his soon-to-arrive brother) to explore his options and really try different courses out. I've been pretty persistent with letting him know that he doesn't have to know what he wants to do in life yet. He's a teenager. He still has time to figure it out. I fully support the idea of taking general grad courses for the first year (and maybe even the second year) of college. It's much better to have to stretch yourself to a fifth year in order to get a degree in something you love than to try and hurry to finish just to be stuck with a career you don't enjoy. Life is short; do what you love...love what you do.

That's not to say that it will all come easy or that there won't be moments of feeling like a failure, but it shouldn't be that way the majority of the time. Oh...and yes, there are professions that provide a bit of a better lifestyle than others. But, when it really comes down to it, money isn't everything and sometimes being comfortable and happy isn't dictated by your financial status.

The Gilmore Project continues...

The Gilmore Project: "Kill Me Now"

The Project:

The Gilmore Project is an experiment in composition form. As a huge fan of the show Gilmore Girls, I have watched and rewatched the episodes several times over. During my last full viewing in early 2018, I noticed myself watching the show differently than I had in the past and realized that there was a lot of personal reflection being stimulated by the events of the show as well as the music and cultural references. As a result, I decided to start a journey in blog form...exploring each episode and how it resonated with me personally. 

Disclaimer: If you have not watched Gilmore Girls but plan to, you'll want to watch each episode before reading these posts. There will 100% of the time be spoilers. I'd be doing this wrong if there weren't. That's the nature of the beast.

The Episode:

Emily: There you go. Now you look just like Tiger Woods.

Rory: Wow. That's some hat.

Rory is being forced under the rigors of Chilton to join a sport. After the subject is brought up at Friday night dinner, Emily suggests that Richard take her golfing. Both Richard and Lorelai voice concerns with the situation. Rory spends a day at the club with her grandfather, after which all parties involved, including Lorelai, are surprised to find that both Richard and Rory enjoyed the outing. This spurs some crazy jealousy in Lorelai, who struggles with the idea that her daughter is finding closeness in a relationship with the parents she could never connect with.

The Lorelai Angle:

Ah...so much for my being able to identify more with Lorelai in the Gilmore episodes. Well...maybe that will change as we progress through the seasons. As for this episode, Lorelai spends most of her time coordinating a wedding at the inn and feeling crazy jealous of Rory's relationship with the elder Gilmores. Neither of these situations were really ones I could connect with beyond anything superficial.

The Rory Angle:

Oh, sports. When the subject of the school's requirement comes up at dinner, Rory's quip is "I'm not really the athletic type". This could not be more me. I'm a book worm, not an athlete. But...much like Chilton, my parents (specifically my dad) had it in their heads that I needed to participate in some kind of sport.

I managed to escape this requirement fairly well until junior high. At that point, I reluctantly joined the volleyball team. Now...it should be mentioned that I am ridiculously uncoordinated and completely lack any grace. My parents had enrolled me in both gymnastics and dance in prior years in an attempt to rectify this issue. It did not take. This was somewhat apparent on the court as well. I was...okay...I suppose, but I certainly did not have any natural athletic ability. It didn't help that I had what was probably a pretty crappy attitude about the whole thing. I didn't want to be there, didn't want to participate, and didn't really have any interest in the sport. I have very few memories about that season, but I made it through.

I thought this endeavor would be enough to satisfy my dad. Nope. He soon decided that maybe it was just that volleyball wasn't my forte. I needed to find a spring sport and try again. Ugh. My parents both had been athletic in their high school days. My mom was a cheerleader. My dad was a track star...like breaking school records type track star. I wasn't popular in any way and had zero interest in taking on cheer, so Dad decided that maybe some genetic ability had passed to me and I should definitely try track. Gah.

I hate running. Seriously. Not a fan. So I hedged away from those events (much to my long-distance running father's chagrin) and instead put myself in shot put, long jump, and...minimizing my running...a relay. This worked well for a while. However, there was an...incident. At one track meet, one of my classmates was unavailable for her leg in a longer distance relay. I was (reluctantly) subbed in. And...as if there was some cosmic sign that I should NOT be a runner...I nearly passed out during my run. A subsequent breathing issue led to a minor medical emergency and a resulting diagnosis of sports aggravated asthma. You had better believe I latched on to this. No more track for me. I finished out the season, but after that...there were no more organized sports. Sometimes things just have a way of working themselves out.

Rory's experience may have resulted in a bit more enjoyment than my volleyball or track stints, but...I did take a bit of joy in the fact that she didn't excel on the green any more than I did on the court or the field.

The Gilmore Project continues...

The Gilmore Project: "The Lorelais' First Day at Chilton"

The Project:

The Gilmore Project is an experiment in composition form. As a huge fan of the show Gilmore Girls, I have watched and rewatched the episodes several times over. During my last full viewing in early 2018, I noticed myself watching the show differently than I had in the past and realized that there was a lot of personal reflection being stimulated by the events of the show as well as the music and cultural references. As a result, I decided to start a journey in blog form...exploring each episode and how it resonated with me personally. 

Disclaimer: If you have not watched Gilmore Girls but plan to, you'll want to watch each episode before reading these posts. There will 100% of the time be spoilers. I'd be doing this wrong if there weren't. That's the nature of the beast.

The Episode:

Rory: So, why are you insisting on doing this?

Lorelai: Well, because you’re starting private school tomorrow.

Rory: Yes, but I’m going to be wearing shoes. Nobody’s going to see my feet.

Lorelai: Okay, but everybody knows that private school girls are bad, and bad girls always wear red nail polish.

It's Rory's first day at fancy private school Chilton and Lorelai wakes up late due to a malfunctioning fuzzy alarm clock (yes, fuzzy). This results in her inability to make it to the dry cleaner before dropping Rory at school and ultimately puts her in the situation of meeting the headmaster while wearing a pink tie-dye shirt, denim cutoffs, and cowboy boots. And of course her mother, Emily, is also there...because, why not?

The day's awkwardness continues for both Gilmore girls as Lorelai faces off multiple times against Emily, who is consistently trying to "help" with getting things for Rory for school. Meanwhile, Rory's transition to her new school is not going very smoothly. She is given a disheartening speech from the headmaster, is met with hostility from highly competitive classmate Paris, and faces a day full of annoying advances and being repeatedly referred to as "Mary" (as in the virgin) by flirtatious Tristan.

The Lorelai Angle:

There wasn't a lot for me in this episode from the Lorelai perspective. Sure...we've all had crap days where we wake up late, can't find the right thing to wear, or the day just seems to be full of speed bumps. But...there wasn't much I connected to from a specific issue. This is bound to happen from time to time. 

The Rory Angle:

It was the Rory storyline that clicked with me this time around. Ah...high school. I think for a majority of people high school just...well...sucked. It's not something that most would care to repeat (though trading adult responsibilities for teenage ones could sometimes seem appealing). It's kind of a rite of passage.

On this initial exposure to Chilton, Rory has run ins with Paris (who begins to set herself up as something of a nemesis from this very first day) and Tristan (an incredibly annoying bad boy Lothario). I don't have experiences that line up exactly with hers, but I can definitely say that high school was no picnic for me. I, for the most part, kept my nose in a book. I was sometimes ridiculed for this (though bullying was certainly a bit less forthright than it seems to be these days and my teasing or hazing experience was comparatively minimal). I enjoyed learning, but I didn't enjoy the cliques or the feeling of being on the outside. Despite this, I can readily say that I wouldn't likely change anything about how I approached high school itself if given the chance for a do over. There are some minor choices here and there that likely would change, but I wouldn't suddenly go from wallflower to social butterfly. It's just not my style.

The big, fiery moment of the episode for me was earlier on. Rory's day at Chilton begins in Headmaster Charleston's office, where he spouts a litany of warnings about how difficult Rory's transition will likely be. He focuses on everything terribly negatively and even has the gall to state that Rory will likely fail. I sincerely hate educators who have such a pessimistic way of approaching students. Not only is a situation a bit of a hot topic for me, I can see it from both the Lorelai and the Rory perspectives. First...let's discuss the Rory side.

When I returned to college a few years ago, I had an accounting professor who seriously discouraged me. I had been considering the field of accounting since I was in my first few years of undergraduate education...nearly twenty years prior. The professor did nothing but make the entire class feel stupid and worthless with his constant disparaging comments and the fact that he acted surprised (and sometimes overtly disappointed) that we couldn't all understand the concepts within the quick few minutes he introduced it. As a result, my grade in that class reflected how much I was doubting myself and I lost the interest I had in a subject that had considered for a career path for nearly two decades. I think it's incredibly important, as an educator, to be a good one. Teachers should lift up and encourage their students, not destroy their loves and dreams.

I can also understand this situation from the perspective of a parent. It most strongly resonates me in terms of how Darian (my now 15-year-old stepson) has been faced with a difficult instructor. I’ve been repeatedly angry at his approach to his students. He doesn’t seem to understand how much they have going on in their lives, nor what their priorities should be. The class in question is an elective and yet this teacher seems to think that his students' time should be 100% focused on this sole class. It's not a realistic expectation at any level of education, but these impressionable teenagers especially should not be faced with such excessive pressure. 

Don't get me wrong, I don't expect instructors to coddle their students. I'm all for making sure that students are being responsible and devoting ample attention to their studies, but one elective course can't require such a focus. This instructor expects that his course is important enough to be superseding all other academic pursuits while simultaneously forgetting that these children also have to balance time with their families and (sometimes) jobs...oh and maintaining a bit of a semblance of childhood. 


As with my experience, the result of this constant pressure and his teacher's unrealistic expectations has been that Darian has lost his love for this particular elective...something that honestly pains me to see as he has a great amount of talent in the field. It's frustrating, but I can understand Darian's feelings (though I hate to see him give up a skill that he shines in) there's no sense in convincing him to continue to pursue it under the current circumstances.

Back to the Lorelais...Charleston’s words are cruel and unnecessary. He knocks Rory down before she is even given the chance to start. Why start a child off with such a bad taste in their mouth? Why give them such a negative outlook on their possibilities and their capabilities before even getting to know who they are? There is a time and a place to stress the responsibilities required of something challenging, but this was not it. He could have easily presented to her the reality that her transition could be difficult without being so discouraging. My anger seriously does not fade with repeated viewings. In fact, I simply find myself wishing to reach through the screen and slap him...or at least yell at him sternly.

The Gilmore Project continues...

The Gilmore Project: "Pilot"

The Project:

The Gilmore Project is an experiment in composition form. As a huge fan of the show Gilmore Girls, I have watched and rewatched the episodes several times over. During my last full viewing in early 2018, I noticed myself watching the show differently than I had in the past and realized that there was a lot of personal reflection being stimulated by the events of the show as well as the music and cultural references. As a result, I decided to start a journey in blog form...exploring each episode and how it resonated with me personally. 

Disclaimer: If you have not watched Gilmore Girls but plan to, you'll want to watch each episode before reading these posts. There will 100% of the time be spoilers. I'd be doing this wrong if there weren't. That's the nature of the beast.

The Episode:

Lorelai: Please, Luke. Please, please, please.

Luke: How many cups have you had this morning?

Lorelai: None.

Luke: Plus?

Lorelai: Five. But yours is better.

Luke: You have a problem.

Lorelai: Yes I do.

"Pilot" is the first episode of Gilmore Girls to air. It is the start of the entire Gilmore universe. It originally aired on the CW network in October of 2000. This episode introduces viewers to Lorelai Gilmore and her 15-year-old daughter, Rory (short for Lorelai...yes...her mother named her after herself). It sets the scene for the series, laying out the basics of character relationships. Lorelai and Rory discover that Rory has been accepted to the prestigious private school, Chilton. Lorelai runs into an issue with the ability to pay for tuition and ends up having to approach her wealthy parents (from whom she is somewhat estranged) for financial help. This results in an agreement for Friday night dinners with Richard and Emily Gilmore, Lorelai's parents, in exchange for their funding of Rory's tuition.

The Lorelai Angle:

I think this is where the project really began...with Lorelai. When the series first premiered, I was in my early 20's. I was in dental school and then, in the later seasons, just beginning to make my way in the "real world". Because of this, I often identified more with Rory than Lorelai, but really never found myself being solidly capable of feeling as if I truly belonged fully in either camp. That's still a bit true, as I can reflect back on things in my life that Rory's situation reminds me of, but now that I'm a bit (ahem) older, I find myself more fully thinking of myself as "a Lorelai" rather than "a Rory". 

The primary issue for Lorelai in this episode is one of money. Ah...isn't that just the continuing fun of being an adult? There are always "fun" financial surprises around every corner. As I watched the episode for today's post, we are dealing with the fun of unexpectedly replacing tires on our primary vehicle. There goes money straight out of savings. It seems that there are always things that crop up no matter how good you think they will finally get going. As Gary messaged me this afternoon, "we seem to be having our share of crap...I hope we get constipated soon." At least he has a way of making me laugh about it, but it's always something, isn't it? 

Paralleling closer to Lorelai's predicament, there was a time when I had to approach my own parents in need of financial help. At the time, I was not a child, but a fully capable adult (much like Lorelai). I owned my own house and I was holding down a job, but there just wasn't enough there to keep everything afloat. I was self-employed, which really was the crux of the problem. Running a business isn't always all it's cracked up to be. Yes, the scheduling freedom is nice and it's always good to control your own benefits, but it really blows when you have to sacrifice your own financial comfort in order to try and make things work. 

The 2008/2009 financial slump hit me and my business particularly hard. I've typically been pretty good with money and I was able to utilize my savings and restructure things a few times in order to scrimp and save where I needed to in order to keep things going. But sometimes there's only so much you can do. Ultimately, I found myself up against a wall, afraid that I would lose everything. Now...hindsight is 20/20 and I probably should have responded to this situation a bit differently than I did a the time, but I felt that I just had to keep making it all work. I needed help. 

In Lorelai's case, she really didn't want to approach her parents because they had a sticky history and an uncomfortable, somewhat obligatory, relationship. The assistance from her parents came with strings attached and, several times down the line, she was left feeling incompetent because she had deigned to approach them with the situation at all. This couldn't be farther from the truth for me. Luckily, I have a very good relationship with my parents. I'm able to talk to them about my life and I have nothing but respect for the way they've brought me up. Yes, we've had our moments, but overall I've always felt that they have been there to support and guide me. However, this good relationship did nothing to ease my apprehension about talking to them about my need for help. In fact, it may have made it worse, as I felt very strongly that I had failed. Like Lorelai, I tend to be a bit rooted in a need to provide for myself. I don't like handouts and I don't like feeling like I can't do something on my own. It was extremely difficult to swallow my pride.

The Rory Angle:

There are many ways in which Rory is me during my teenage years. I was studious and fairly shy (I'm still very much an introvert) and I didn't really have strong connections to a lot of people I went to school with. In fact, I think I'm probably just about as close to my high school classmates now (via the wonders of Facebook) as I was when I was sixteen. I suppose that could be read two different ways, but trust me when I tell you that this means that there are few relationships there that wouldn't merely land somewhere in the spectrum between acquaintance and friend. Don't get me wrong, they're not bad people...I'm just not much of a people person.

In this episode, Rory is shown in English class and the teacher gives them the option to complete their reading of the assigned Adventures of Huckleberry Finn or to work on the follow up essay. Rory is shown writing diligently while her female classmates are testing out nail polish and venturing guesses as to what she is working on.

Girl 1: Could be a love letter.

Girl 2: Or her diary.

Girl 3: Or a slam book.

Girl 4: It's the assignment.

Yep. that was me. Rory has already finished the reading and is focused on her schoolwork rather than social circles. This tendency to be more studious than social is hinted at a few other times during the episode, particularly when she is shown in conversation with her best friend, Lane. In my particular case, I was very much a studious teenager. Schoolwork was a priority and anything outside of that...well...often made me pretty uncomfortable (see the earlier mention of introvert). I really didn't have a best friend like Rory has in Lane due to a falling out with my long time best friend early in sophomore year, but I had a few closer friends that I did enjoy spending time with. Though I still keep in contact with a couple of them and I have developed good relationships with a few additional friends along the way, none has the lasting closeness that we see throughout the series between Rory and Lane. I'm a bit envious of that. 

This episode also introduces us to the character of Dean Forester. Rory meets him for the first time in the hallway of the high school as she is packing up her locker in preparation for the transfer to Chilton. It becomes pretty clear that she is interested in him as she (though earlier very excited about changing schools) tells Lorelai, "I'm not sure I want to go to Chilton. The timing's really bad." Ah...the old changing things for a boy.

While I certainly changed things about myself and the trajectory of my life several times along the way because of a boy...or a man...the big thing that hit me about this particular interaction was Lorelai's response to Rory's balking. During the subsequent argument between the two Gilmore girls, Lorelai hypothesizes that the boy has "dark hair, romantic eyes, looks a little dangerous?...Tattoos are good too," and then hollers, "Does he have a motorcycle? Because if you're going to throw your life away, he better have a motorcycle!" Ah...now that reminds me of sixteen. 

You see, at sixteen, I was all the things previously mentioned. I was responsible and studious. I held a 4.0 GPA and a job. But during the summer I was sixteen, there was also a boy. A boy with dark hair and tattoos. He didn't have a motorcycle, but I think the fact that he was twenty-two and a Marine probably made up for that. (Besides, I'm sure at some point later in life he likely bought one. He's the type.) It was a summer fling that never went anywhere beyond a month or two, but how my dad didn't completely flip over the situation is beyond me. Props to him for that because that required a lot of trust in my ability to not be a complete idiot. That boy/man disappeared from my life as quickly as he entered it and though it's been a somewhat funny anecdote to my fairly lackluster dating history, I hadn't heard from him or seen anything of him in over twenty years. Funnily enough though, I actually discovered earlier this year via a post in my newsfeed (oh Facebook and your weird and sometimes wonderful randomness) that said boy/man is actually now in a long-term relationship with a friend of a high school friend. The world is sometimes very small.

Other Musings:


When I went through the episode in preparation for this post, I took notes. When I finished, I didn't think I had much. In the end, I wound up cutting about half of the information I had jotted down. This included a few snippets here and there that didn't lead to anything big and some simple things like acknowledging that hearing "There She Goes" by the La's in the intro did nothing but remind me of the Boo Radleys version from So I Married an Axe Murderer. I figure this is how a lot of these pieces will likely go. I won't be spewing out every thought I have, but rather focusing on a few things that presented a larger picture. Sometimes it will be serious, other times it will be silly or just plain stupid.

Like I mentioned in the first bit of this post, The Gilmore Project is an experiment. It's an adventure. I'm feeling it out as I go. So...please, feel free to provide me feedback where you see fit. What would you like to see more of/less of? Any things you'd like me to address that I don't even allude to? Crowdsourced creativity can sometimes be a very helpful thing.

The Gilmore Project

I've been struggling with needing something different around here...having found myself growing bored of my own posts about books. (Whoa...That's never a good sign.) I just needed more variety and something a bit more substantial than spouting what feels like occasionally monotonous and repetitive evaluations that don't always have a full sense of heart behind them. There are good book bloggers and bad book bloggers and I have slumped into the latter category.

Crafts really haven't been an option of late since we're slowly remodeling the house and have yet to really unpack that category of stuff into an organized and permanent space. So there's been a bit of limbo about what in the world I would write about. Thus, instead of crafting or writing, (and since I'm ridiculously pregnant and uncomfortable), I've been spending a lot of time on the internet reading other blogs or just hanging out on the couch. I'm not going to lie...that can become somewhat boring.

It gets a bit eerily quiet in the house sometimes, so I've been spending B's naptime running Netflix in the background while I get the house cleaned or just relax for a few minutes. A couple of months ago, I decided to rewatch one of my favorite series, Gilmore Girls, for what has to be at least the sixth full run.

I finished rewatching a little over a month ago. This time through, I found myself noticing new things and seeing the episodes and characters in a different light. Now...full disclosure, I always find something new when I watch. For those who haven't watched the show before, the episodes are FULL of clever references to books, music, pop culture, and other little sly bits of information. But this was different. I started noticing how some things paralleled to my own life. I started reflecting on those little clever references. I started seeing the storylines from different points of view. And I decided...maybe this might be something a little interesting to write about. There may have been a small epiphany type feeling.

And so...I'm beginning what I'm calling The Gilmore Project. It's an experiment and hopefully will result in a good blogging adventure. I'll be going episode by episode through all seven regular seasons as well as the Year in the Life episodes released by Netflix in late 2016. As I sift through the plot of each episode, I'll reflect on different pieces. In some cases, I may explain how events from a particular character's experience parallel to my own life. Sometimes I may simply reflect on how the music used in the episode reminds me of certain things. Or I may muse on specific references used in the plot with regard to literature, historical events, music, or pop culture. Sometimes there's bound to be a lot to unpack, so there's a chance that an episode may prompt more than one post. To put it bluntly, I'll be winging as I go.

I'm finding myself both excited and nervous about this project. It's something different than I've ever really done before...especially on the blog, in a public way. There's bound to be some pretty personal reflections and there may be things that I feel somewhat uncomfortable writing about. But I feel like I need to explore my writing in a different way and I need to do something new. I've been stagnant around here for too long and I don't yet have the ability to fully return to craft projects (though this may change by mid-fall if the summer goes as planned). This really is a true experiment. Given...it won't be interesting for everyone, but it should be a fun exercise if nothing else. A good way to reflect on events, thoughts, and other random bits.