I'm flying out tomorrow for a friend's wedding. She's not just any friend, I've known her since freshman year high school. The summer before I entered 9th grade my family moved to Florida. I'd say it was just about the worst age to start a new school, especially when everyone else seemed to know one another since grade school. So I considered myself lucky when I met not just one but two best friends. You could say we were the product of the MTV generation in that, we hit puberty about the same time music television launched on air. So like most teenagers of that decade we bonded over Duran Duran, John Hughes films, and boys. To say we were boy crazy would be a huge understatement. The truth is, we lived, breathed, and mooned over boys 24/7. All types of boys, but especially those we considered cool.
And who at that time was cuter or cooler than Jake Ryan (sigh)... okay, possibly lots of other boys but Jake Ryan will always be the boy, the very popular and hot senior everyone of us at some point in our lives pined for but always believed was out of our reach.
My all time favorite coming-of-age movie is Sixteen Candles, starring Molly Ringwald, Michael Schoeffling, and Anthony Michael Hall. I'm not embarrassed to admit I've seen the film a hundred times over. I adored Molly Ringwald, loved everything about her from her on-camera personality, cool taste in music and clothes, to her gorgeous red hair. For a period, I was even convinced we were separated at birth. A ridiculous notion because I'm half-asian and look nothing like her. We were twins in spirit.
Maybe in some ways I never grew up because I still enjoy teen inspired entertainment, whether it's books, films, or television. For me, no one did it better than John Hughes. Nor has anyone made me swoon quite like Jake Ryan.
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