Throughout my life, I’ve seen many people express this sentiment: “Why can’t my life be like a John Hughes movie?”
Think about the most popular John Hughes movies. You might say The Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles, Pretty and Pink, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, maybe even Home Alone (or if you’re me, Some Kind of Wonderful). These seem to be the ones that get referenced the most.
What’s great about these movies is the endings. Basically everything in life sucks until the end. You have the worst birthday of your life,
you’re stuck in detention (and have a terrible home life. Abused, neglected, suicidal),
your boyfriend’s friends don’t approve of you and make your life a living hell,
but everything is magically okay because Jake Ryan unexpectedly is waiting for you outside of your sister’s wedding,
you bond with people you never wanted to befriend,
Blaine decides that he doesn’t care what his friends think after you’re already at prom with somebody else.
They’re good movies, and I myself am obsessed with them too, but John Hughes modeled his teen movies after real life as a teen. You spend so much time feeling lonely and unwanted, maybe overly pressured by your parents, on the verge of snapping. Your life probably is like a John Hughes movie, but you’ve lived past that one moment that would be your ‘happy ending,’ and are now back to your regularly scheduled angst.
If someone you know wishes their life was a John Hughes movie, just forget to acknowledge their birthday. I’m sure they’ll love it.
