The television show “Freaks and Geeks” ran for one season from 1999 to 2000. It followed a group of high schoolers in 1980 Michigan as they traversed the world of personalities and labels. It also launched the careers of several well-known actors, including James Franco and Seth Rogen.
While this column could easily go on for several hundred words praising the brilliance of the show and lamenting its untimely cancellation (it was ahead of its time and would’ve been a hit today), it’s only about a 30-second portion of the series.
Lindsay Weir (one of the show’s two protagonists and played by Linda Cardellini) is a sophomore honors student who spent her freshman year as a math-lete. Following the death of her grandmother, she’s questioning whether anything truly matters in life and becomes less preoccupied with books and more distracted by the “freaks” (in this case, the burnouts and/or less-than-stellar students).
When the freaks convince her to take her parents’ car without permission — leading to a predictable accident — she distances herself and begins to question whether they’re good friends to have. Though they make up after the freaks show their support for Lindsay during a mathletes tournament, there’s a subsequent episode where Lindsay speaks to a college-aged pal about her friend group.
Though she says she loves them as people, they don’t challenge or inspire her. This scene always made me sad for those who are capable of so much but might be around the wrong crowd.
Though I connect with Lindsay on many levels, the lack of inspiration from friends is something I’m lucky to not relate to. And that only grows more true as I become further ingratiated into Kankakee’s community.
I see so many incredible people — many I’m lucky to call friends — doing things day in and day out to make this community stronger.
Among those things is this weekend’s Wintersong, a vessel to showcase the amazing musical talent in this area. The group putting this together have worked tirelessly to make the event a success and their dedication is inspiring.
It is also a celebration of several small businesses in the community which are another example of inspiration, especially in these challenging economic times.
I’m incredibly grateful to know and be friends with a good number of folks who are doing such remarkable things in this area — from art to nonprofits to education. Whether they know it or not, they’ve inspired me to challenge myself to a few new ventures this year; something I’ll write more about in time.
For now, all I can hope is that Lindsay Weir (and those like her) eventually found the right group of friends to inspire and challenge her.
https://daily-journal.com/life/a-taylor-made-life-challenging-and-inspiring/article_0c4ecf3e-ce19-11ef-b6bd-238d70f2a4a1.html