By Kate Emswiler
This weekend I’m going to a high school graduation party and, naturally, it got me thinking about high school TV shows. Of course I continue to watch shows about teens even though I graduated high school back when TLC’s “No Scrubs” was topping the charts. And over all these years of watching high school shows, I’ve discovered some valuable life lessons straight from the mouths of awkward adolescents. Without further pomp and circumstance, here they are:
Lesson #1 from “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”: Be a hero, even when you’d rather go to the mall
This is the first chapter heading in the book What Would Buffy Do?, in which author Jana Riess examines the many spiritual lessons to be learned from “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” In the beginning of the series, 16-year-old Buffy wants to resign as a Slayer, but she ultimately accepts her responsibility to others and continues fighting for the good of the world. She sacrifices a good deal in order to do this, including ordinary teenage experiences like hanging out at the mall or having a “normal” boyfriend. In addition to the importance of self-sacrifice, there are plenty of other messages to take away from the series, perhaps most obviously the idea that we need to battle demons straight-on — no running and hiding from the creeps and various undead. We could do well to strive to be more like this particular teenage girl, heroic and fearless.
Got a Kate-
