There’s probably been a handful of times where your mother, father, or gentle gray-haired neighbor offered you some inquisitive words of advice. During these times you may have shaken your head, rolled your eyes, or even thought to yourself, “why does this weathered down baby boomer think their advice applies to my super trendy millennial lifestyle?” While you’re a little wrong, you are also a little right.
Today, our lives are so focused on our connection to the world through technology. Long gone are the days when you were only on television if you were an actor or someone of true importance. If you surf through your television channels (or just hop on Netflix), you’ll find reality shows featuring the least important people you can imagine. These people are able to have a television show centered around their ‘normal’ lives, so we should be able to find many similarities between their lives and ours.
These similarities provide us with many life lessons for us to learn from. But, what reality show can we most relate our lives too? Do we identify most with 200-pound southern trailer trash mother raising a sassy, chubby, child pageant prodigy? Or do you identify most with a group of twenty-something, juiced up, spikey-haired Italian Americans? I think for most of us, we might pick the twenty-something Italian Americans; so, what lessons can we learn from their successes and not so pretty mistakes?
One of the reality show’s most classic words of advice are: never fall in love at the Jersey Shore. These words of advice illicit a message you should consider emphasizing in your own life here at Monmouth University.
I’ve seen it time and time again where the couples that resemble the infamous Ronnie and Sam relationship fall in love and wind up hating their lives. Your significant other could hinder you from too many fun nights out, and probably drain your bank account funds.
Another lesson Jersey Shore teaches us is that you can’t live off of pickles and uncontrolled substances. Nicole Polizzi, more affectionately named ‘Snooki,’ may be one of the only women to look better after delivering two babies than she did beforehand. During her days of partying up and down the Seaside Boardwalk, she resembled a rotten meatball. She did not focus on her health and it showed in her appearance.
Her daily intake of her favorite food, pickles, and immeasurable amounts of alcohol shows us that we shouldn’t be consuming the same things as her. Once she became a mother, Snooki began to hit the gym and care more about her lifestyle choices. At the very least, try to eat balanced meals and drink more water; this should help with enhancing your appearance so that you don’t look like a pre-children Snooki.
Another lesson Jersey Shore brings to our attention is no matter how much you adore a certain someone, don’t become their certified stalker. Remember the muscular, beautifully tanned DJ Pauly D? Remember all the women that use to flaunt themselves around him? If you do, then you know it took a lot for him to say no to their ‘offers.’ However, there was one time when he said flat out no. This crazy ‘Seaside leech’ would not accept that Pauly was not interested in her. She would follow him around for countless hours of the day, and stalked his every move.
He not only disliked her to begin with, but he ended up becoming afraid of her. If the person you blatantly like does not show interest, like Pauly D’s situation, don’t continue to harass them. Sometimes it is best to simply let it go.
The Jersey Shore provides us with plenty of lessons that we can adapt to our everyday life at Monmouth University. At the university it’s best to be wary of relationships and try not to obsess over them. This goes for any university—relationships can be wonderful and long-term, but, with anything, caution is always important.
The other lesson about taking care of yourself is important because, as college students we are always eating out and eating quickly. We can always find time to hit the university gym and make healthier choices like post-pregnant Snooki.
While the show can be seriously absurd and can have some rude tendencies, it really offers a lot of great life lessons for us! As Snooki would say, “I don’t have regrets, there are only lessons. You learn from them, and you become a better person.”