Last year I celebrated Buffy‘s 15th Anniversary by sharing 15 reasons why I loved, and continue to love, Joss Whedon’s series about a girl destined to fight demons.
But instead of just adding one more reason to that list, which would have been quite the time saver, I decided to be a bit more reflective this year. After all, I’ve been a fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer for sixteen years – I grew up watching it. The series not only ignited my passion for television, but it has also influenced my sense of humor, education, and apocalyptic preparedness survival skills…among other things.
The series has also been a frequent writing topic for me, not only in research papers, or college admission essays, or for this blog, but also just in general. Now I’m not typically one to journal, but for one reason or another, there have been times when I was on a writing kick and Buffy always managed to come up – so I thought I’d share some of my more amusing entries.
Flashback: 16 Years Of Buffy
In 6th grade my teacher required us keep a daily journal. I only ever wrote about a paragraph for each day and most entries were just a rundown of typical 12-year-old stuff – softball and soccer practice, homework, and what my friends I and did after school, but this entry is by far my favorite:
I checked the air dates for season 2 episodes of Buffy, and apparently I was referring to “Killed By Death”(2×18). Next to “Hush” (4×10), I still think this is one of the creepiest episodes of the series, and its still one of my go-to episodes on sick days. And while I no longer have to ‘tape’ TV shows, I still like to hoard episodes of my favorite series on the DVR for repeat viewings.
Season two of Buffy the Vampire Slayer is still probably my favorite season, so it’s no surprise that I mentioned it more than once:
Looking past my horrible spelling of ‘finale’, I find it amusing that I didn’t even spend more time expanding on what happened in the finale or what the cliffhanger was in “Becoming Part II” (2×22). It’s like I assumed that anyone reading this whould have obviously watched the action packed and tear inducing two-parter.
The next time I kept up anything resembling a journal was freshman year of college, and let’s just say that my experience didn’t differ all that much from Buffy’s first few weeks at UC Sunnydale, minus the vampires. The entire fall semester was a difficult transition for me, which is how I ended up with an entry like this:
On the plus side, my handwriting and spelling certainly improved! College did get better, I didn’t stop watching Buffy, but for the most part I did stop writing. The only exception is my typed journal I kept during my semester abroad in Australia. That one also includes frequent mentions of Buffy, mostly because I watched an episode or two almost every night before bed (but not because I had a bad day – Australia was incredible).
While I don’t watch Buffyas much as I used to, I don’t just watch TV all day, I still like to break out episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer on holidays. I just can’t celebrate Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, or Valentine’s Day without popping in one of my DVDs.
I think my trip down memory lane highlights one of the many reasons why the TV show Buffy the Vampire Slayer is so special. It has the ability to mean something to so many people, at so many different points in their lives. In 1998 I just thought it was awesome to see a girl kicking ass on TV, when I went to college in 2004 Buffy was my security blanket, and even now in 2013 watching Buffy has become part of my yearly holiday traditions.
I know Buffy has had this profound effect on others, but when I had the chance to witness it first hand at the 15 Years of Buffy the Vampire Slayer panel at New York Comic Con, I was still in awe that a little TV show could become so much more. It was incredible to be surrounded by so many fans, and even panelists, who were equally excited and eager to share what the show has meant to them.
So now that I’ve shared my story – what has Buffy meant to you over the last sixteen years?
