5 on Friday: Lessons From Boy Meets World

The internet is buzzing with the release date for Girl Meets World. And with good reason, there’s an entire group of us who grew up with this show. It was kids our age (or our older siblings age) going through issues we were fighting with. It was ours. Every Friday we’d sit down for TGIF and watch. And now, Cory and Topanga are all grown up with a kid of their own. The show is passing onto the next generation, to guide them in the way Boy Meets World guided us.

But for all the celebration, I can’t help but think of all the lessons from Boy Meets World it seems we have forgotten.

Also, why are there so few quality Boy Meets World clips on the internet? I am dissapoint.

1) Have a Mentor

Throughout Boy Meets World, Mr. Feeny is a mentor to all the characters, though Eric is the one who seeks out his help the most. Did you catch that? Eric has to seek the help from his mentor. Your mentor is not there to hold your  hand and serendipitously give you advice. You have to seek them out, ask them for it, and work to maintain that connection.

2) Love Isn’t Easy

For some reason, we as a generation seem to think fairy tales are real. That love just happens, and doesn’t take work. And if it takes work, it wasn’t “meant to be.” The reality is that “happily ever after” can exist, but it takes a lot of work. Look at Cory and Topanga. They breakup. They fight. They have high expectations crushed (ie, their first apartment). And they work through it, but work is the key word.

3) You Need a Best Friend that Isn’t Your Partner

Cory and Topanga are together throughout the series. But that’s only one of the “through the series” relationships. The other of course is Cory and Shawn. Cory and Shawn define what it means to be best friends, and Topanga is even jealous of their relationship in one episode. She learns how important their friendship is, and how it doesn’t diminish what she has with Cory.

“My significant other is my best friend,” is a theme that has gotten out of control. Having friends (and hobbies) away from your partner is important, and a key to making things work.

4) Having Information is not the Same as Being Informed

The “new webpage every six seconds” seems slow now, but the point is the same. We have a wealth of information available to us, but we’re tragically uninformed. I fall into this category. If it isn’t technology news, up until about a month ago I couldn’t have told you about it. But listening to WFYI on my commute (10 minutes each way) has made me more informed than the entirety of my time on the internet in any given day. We need to be better about this as a generation.

5) We’re All a Little Self Conscious

In the last season, Topanga starts dieting. And through a series of funny misunderstandings Cory ends up thinking she’s pregnant. At the surprise baby shower Topanga reveals she’s just dieting and everyone reveals their own self consciousness. Rachel feels she’s too tall. Angela wishes she has Topanga’s curves. Shawn has no butt. The point is we’re all a little self conscious of something. But we’ve taken to shaming each other. We pick on each other for being too thin (“Real women have curves”). We pick on each other for being too fat (“It’s for your health sweetie”). When really we should just mind our own damn business.

Bonus: Have Squirrels Help With Your Manifesto

Because Plays With Squirrels has always been one of my favorite Eric Matthews moments. “It’s me manifesto, all of us hermits have one.”