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Today I'm gonna cheat and talk about two characters, right in a row, who come from the same sort of movie but are very different people. But I see myself in both of them, at least a little.
Put on your blonde and head to the valley, because we're totally talking about Cher Horowitz, from Clueless! (Don't feel bad if you didn't recognize the last name, I had to look it up too.)
Look, on the surface, Cher and I appear to be absolutely nothing alike. In the immortal words of Wicked, I am unusually1 and exceedingly peculiar and all together quite impossible to describe, and she is Blonde. But there's more to us both than the surface.
Cher is a little aimless and a little vain. She wants to do great things and help people, but she doesn't exactly know how. When things start going bad for her, her first impulse is to indulge in some retail therapy --oh sure, half the clothes I wears, she wouldn't touch (and vice versa), but both of us know the value of a good outfit on a bad mood.
Her projects often start from a self-serving place, but they are intended to help people. She listens, and tries to empathize (even with people she normally wouldn't socialize with), and she just wants everyone to be their happy, cute, best self. Oh, and she's a virgin who can't drive2.
Perhaps Cher exhibits more of my bad traits than my good, but I still can't help but see myself reflected in her ambition some days --and both of us tend to aim that ambition at places other than expected. That being said, I did successfully argue at least one quarter of 12th grade psychology from a B to an A, because I felt I should. I don't know if my parents were proud --and I don't know if they wouldn't've been prouder if I'd earned it myself.
***
Now while we're talking about blonde girls from the nineties, we would be utterly remiss in continuing the conversation if we didn't take a step by Katarina Stratford.
It is _so rare_ that I meet other Katarinas, let alone ones that spell their name the same as I do. So of course I took attention when I learned there was such a person in 10 Things I Hate About You. It's Julia Stiles's best role, and if you haven't seen the movie, I can't recommend it enough.
And is Katarina Stratford a similar Kat to me? Oh yes. Ohhhhhhh yes. Admittedly, I hardly ever got called into the guidance office for inducing men to kick themselves into the balls (Bobby Ridgeway deserved it, I'm sure) but I've spent the last few years honing my sharpness into something useful and dangerous. Sarcasm is a language I've always spoken, and she uses it *well*.
My parents joked once or twice about inflicting the "you can't date 'til she does" rule on me and Alys --it proved unnecessary all around (since my parents are basically cool people), but I know what it's like to have the total babe younger sister. Who I would do anything to protect, even if I don't always know how to show it.
And I know what it's like to crave independence so hard you'll run a thousand miles away to find it. I love my parents, they are really wonderful people, but I have wanted to be free of anyone else's influence since I was about twelve years old.
All that and Heath Ledger in his prime. Sign me up!
~Sor
MOOP!
1: Completely unrelated to anything else, I like how the first three vowels in this words are all "u's". "unusually"! It has a nice type-feel to it!
2: This line hits me so hard, every time. I'm not a virgin anymore3, but I was for longer than some of my friends, and I still have all the weird and complicated around traditional intercourse. And I drive much *much* more safely than Cher does --I've never gotten into an accident, never gotten a speeding/etc ticket, or anything like that. But it still doesn't come naturally (except on the liminal spaces of highway road trips, at which point I can access magic) and I often have just a little feeling of discomfort. And heck, I didn't get my license until I was nineteen.
3: *jams out to appropriate Poe song here*
Put on your blonde and head to the valley, because we're totally talking about Cher Horowitz, from Clueless! (Don't feel bad if you didn't recognize the last name, I had to look it up too.)
Look, on the surface, Cher and I appear to be absolutely nothing alike. In the immortal words of Wicked, I am unusually1 and exceedingly peculiar and all together quite impossible to describe, and she is Blonde. But there's more to us both than the surface.
Cher is a little aimless and a little vain. She wants to do great things and help people, but she doesn't exactly know how. When things start going bad for her, her first impulse is to indulge in some retail therapy --oh sure, half the clothes I wears, she wouldn't touch (and vice versa), but both of us know the value of a good outfit on a bad mood.
Her projects often start from a self-serving place, but they are intended to help people. She listens, and tries to empathize (even with people she normally wouldn't socialize with), and she just wants everyone to be their happy, cute, best self. Oh, and she's a virgin who can't drive2.
Perhaps Cher exhibits more of my bad traits than my good, but I still can't help but see myself reflected in her ambition some days --and both of us tend to aim that ambition at places other than expected. That being said, I did successfully argue at least one quarter of 12th grade psychology from a B to an A, because I felt I should. I don't know if my parents were proud --and I don't know if they wouldn't've been prouder if I'd earned it myself.
***
Now while we're talking about blonde girls from the nineties, we would be utterly remiss in continuing the conversation if we didn't take a step by Katarina Stratford.
It is _so rare_ that I meet other Katarinas, let alone ones that spell their name the same as I do. So of course I took attention when I learned there was such a person in 10 Things I Hate About You. It's Julia Stiles's best role, and if you haven't seen the movie, I can't recommend it enough.
And is Katarina Stratford a similar Kat to me? Oh yes. Ohhhhhhh yes. Admittedly, I hardly ever got called into the guidance office for inducing men to kick themselves into the balls (Bobby Ridgeway deserved it, I'm sure) but I've spent the last few years honing my sharpness into something useful and dangerous. Sarcasm is a language I've always spoken, and she uses it *well*.
My parents joked once or twice about inflicting the "you can't date 'til she does" rule on me and Alys --it proved unnecessary all around (since my parents are basically cool people), but I know what it's like to have the total babe younger sister. Who I would do anything to protect, even if I don't always know how to show it.
And I know what it's like to crave independence so hard you'll run a thousand miles away to find it. I love my parents, they are really wonderful people, but I have wanted to be free of anyone else's influence since I was about twelve years old.
All that and Heath Ledger in his prime. Sign me up!
~Sor
MOOP!
1: Completely unrelated to anything else, I like how the first three vowels in this words are all "u's". "unusually"! It has a nice type-feel to it!
2: This line hits me so hard, every time. I'm not a virgin anymore3, but I was for longer than some of my friends, and I still have all the weird and complicated around traditional intercourse. And I drive much *much* more safely than Cher does --I've never gotten into an accident, never gotten a speeding/etc ticket, or anything like that. But it still doesn't come naturally (except on the liminal spaces of highway road trips, at which point I can access magic) and I often have just a little feeling of discomfort. And heck, I didn't get my license until I was nineteen.
3: *jams out to appropriate Poe song here*