Hi[gh] School / Bye School.

I’ve finally decided to watch One Tree Hill again, I’ve finally forgotten enough about the in-between events of this series to become invested in watching it all over. I’m not one of those that can just rewatch a series over and over. I have to forget about a series to be able to watch it over, or else I don’t pay attention to it while it’s on. I’m almost at the end of season 3 and I’m enticed by it all over again. 

What makes the show so compelling for me, is that I feel like I can relate to one character in particular, Peyton Sawyer.

*Side note: After watching the second season again, Brooke Davis is the one to basically invent Uber in 2005 with her ride sharing call service, “DWnotI.” [Driving While not Intoxicated, in case you aren’t familiar with One Tree Hill.] It was a funny surprise since I didn’t notice that the first time watching it a few years ago.

Anyways, Stephen being critical, as usual, says the appeal of the show would be better if they weren’t so dramatic since all these issues are just occurring in high school. Despite the writers amping up the drama to forward the show, high school is overly dramatic. I told him that that’s the point of high school drama shows. 

I remember how some situations seemed like the end of the world for me – hopefully everyone else was an overdramatic teenager like me, right? I expressed it outwardly through my writing, but it definitely showed how I was a tad bit dramatic – but hey, I got through it! 

Circling around the thought of high school from a college perspective, every worry seemed so silly to fret about. I’ve encountered far more difficult trials than high school ever presented me with. Reading high school drama novels seems almost impossible for me now.

I want to roll my eyes a little after the female protagonist is trying different ways to get her crush to notice here by doing dramatic and irrational things.

That is high school.

That’s all part of it, stuff that we’ve all tried. I want to roll my eyes at what my past self has done to catch the attention of someone. When the world feels like the end of the world, I wanted to act reckless and send any care I had into the wind. 

Speaking of dramatic and irrational, Peyton lost her mom whenever she was a child. As a dangerous way to cope, she would stop at green lights, but floor it at red lights in her seemingly small town. 

The sad, coincidental reason why she did this was because her mom was supposed to pick her up from school one day. She managed to run one red light, and she was hit and killed by a driver. 

Not saying that people do this – well, at least I hope not, but this is another teenage recklessness in the form of coping like I mentioned in a post a few weeks ago about how coping is dealt with. 

The Show’s Takeaways

Stepping out of the fictional realm of the show, it leaves an impact about how these types of things actually happen in the real world. Sure, in real life, there is way less drama than these shows I indulge in, but that doesn’t mean the emotions and feelings aren’t what we feel in this world as well. 

I remember how much I cried in this show [haha]. I still catch myself crying so early on in this show, but the show hits home on different levels that most people can relate to.

I think that’s what appeals to audiences on this spectrum and it works pretty well. I personally gain more humanity and compassion as I watch fictional, or even real life people, as they deal with circumstances thrown their way. 

It’s definitely funny how time and perspective shift. It somewhat makes me mad at myself for not have a more mature mindset, but I can’t completely fault myself for that. It’s merely a stage of development in life and I need to be more kind to myself over silly high school things that I sometimes wish I could reclaim and change all over again. 

It’s useless to think like that — a fault I’m trying to work on, but slowly is how I’m taking it. I hope everyone else is also kind to themselves as well.

I shall continue my glorious binge watching now!