I’m Okay With Waiting: Fateful, Awkward (2011)

Most Romantic Moment #13

So I mentioned a while back that I was a fan of this show (at least the first season. I don’t like the changes they made later on. I’m J² all the way, the J train is what it is all about.)

So brief recap on Awkward. The show is about nerd-girl Jenna Hamilton, who hopes this year will be different. Jenna has had a huge crush on her longtime neighbor Matty McKibbon (I don’t see the appeal).

She is surprised when at summer camp he wants to have sex with her. She thinks that maybe this could work out, that they could be a couple; but afterwards Matty ignores her.

She gets home and gets this horrible letter stating everything wrong with her. She is reading it in the bathroom when she accidentally slips and falls. The big problem, her blow dryer fell in the tub, she spilled all her razors and aspirins, etc.

Everyone thinks she was trying to commit suicide, even though she keeps telling them she wasn’t. Now she has to go to counseling sessions all the time.

Not only that, but she constantly picked on by the most popular girl in school, Sadie, who is jealous of how pretty Jenna is. To further the drama of the year she has Matty who only uses her for sex:

Never wanting to be publicly be seen with her, never acknowledges her, and puts her down in front of everyone.

Then you have Jake. The two start of as friends, then Jake realizes he has feelings for her.

He breaks up with his girlfriend and tries to date her, never pressuring her for anything, not caring who knows he likes her, etc.

So Jenna finds herself trying to figure out what path to take next.

Most Romantic Moment: We Don’t Need to Have Sex, We Can Wait

So the moment I have chosen comes in the final episode in the season. Jenna has yelled at Matty for being a total tool.

Jake asked her and she agreed to go; them bringing along her friend Tamara and Ming. They go to prom and have a great time The two being silly, Jake holding her hand in public, and the two kissing.

Now the most romantic moment comes after prom. Jenna and Jake have gone back to Jenna’s house and she invites him in. Jake agrees, but let’s Jenna know that nothing has to happen. They can wait.

Not only is it incredibly sweet that Jake is willing to wait, making their relationship much more than just sex, but the fact that Jake is willing to wait; proving to Jenna that he isn’t another Matty or just going to “use and lose her”. And to top it off, she finally has a real relationship with a guy who isn’t afraid to be seen with her, who likes everything about her, and cares about her feelings.

What an incredibly sweet guy. J-Train all the way!

To start Romance is in the Air:Part IV from the beginning, go to I Can’t Pretend, I Have to Be: Casual Sex? (1988)

For the previous post, go to You Were Right, Let’s Get Married: Psycho (1960)

For more on Awkward, go to A Whole Lot of Fanfare

For more Relationship Rules, go to Just Like the Beginning

 

Credit Where Credit is Due

Have you ever taken credit for something you didn’t do or was out of your hands to create?

It’s not to say that you were trying to steal someone else’s thoughts, creation, or work. It’s just you are trying to take full credit for something you really had no true control over.

Well then you are just like Emma when she believes she is the one who brought Miss Taylor and Mr. Weston together.

Now a lot of people laugh at how conceited Emma is in this scene, but this is actually something a lot of people fall into.

For all you sports fans, think about the last game you saw in which your team won because “you wore a special shirt or socks”. Or how about the fact you won a prize because you chose your “lucky number”? Or the time you won a game because you “blew luck into the dice”? Or getting a certain space in Monopoly because you “claimed” it? Or the time you passed a test because you wore a “lucky” piece of clothing? Yep, we humans love to claim that some act we did caused a realignment in the cosmos and brought about something we desired.

In reality, none of our little “lucky” things or claims did anything to affect it. It was out of our control the whole time, but we feel better having done “something”. It makes us feel in control.

In Emma, Emma Woodhouse’s governess and best friend has just married the widower Mr. Weston. Emma is convinced that she is the one who made it all happen, as four years ago when everyone said Mr. Weston would never marry, she was determined to prove them all wrong.

However, there is a huge problem with this thought. In thinking that she did everything, Emma is totally disregarding the feelings of her mentor and Mr. Weston. Because she was lucky in her guess, she believes she is the one who made all the decisions, a true puppet master.

Sorry Emma, that’s not how it works. People are like cats, they don’t do something because you want them to. They do what they want to do.

If they want to be together, they will try to get together. But if they don’t want to get together, then it’s not going to work out.

As Mr. Knightley says it:

“I do not understand what you mean by ‘success’, said Mr Knightley. “Success supposes endeavor…But if, which I rather imagine, your making the match, as you call it, means only your planning it, your saying to yourself one idle day, ‘I think it would be a very good thing for Miss Taylor if Mr. Weston were to marry her,’ and saying it again to yourself every now and then afterwards, why do you talk of success? Where is your merit? You made a lucky guess; and that is all that can be said.”

Unfortunately, like most people, Emma won’t listen to him as she is adamant that her thoughts and suppositions had a true effect on the real world.

And is now determined to set her sights on someone else, fixing them up and proving to Mr. Knightley that she is in control.

And how will this turn out for Emma? Keep following to find out!

For more on Emma, go to All By Myself