Why Every Student Should Watch The Office
We all know that even the most studious college students take some time to keep up with pop-culture music and television shows. One television show that every student should watch has nothing to do with college, but everything to do with what college is about: following your dreams, bettering lives, and being the best possible version of yourself.
This television show is none other than the United States version of The Office. Already, this sounds far fetched: a mostly middle-aged cast working at a paper company holding so much emotion and beauty, so many life lessons. However, this comedy series has taught me a lot in the last five months that I could drag it out (I wanted my first time watching the show to last as long as possible). Through crazy office antics and heart-warming moments, the audience can see the beauty in their humanity occurring on the most basic level of existence, the existence of, say, a paper salesman in Scranton, Pennsylvania.
As a viewer, I understand I may be biased when I say that everyone should watch The Office, but when I finished the series for the first time, I realized that the show was more than just a fake documentary on the lives of the employees of a paper company. It was to showcase how some things in a person’s life may seem insignificant, but it is something that they find to be life affirming. Angela, a shrewd and uptight accountant, may be seen as a crazy cat lady, but what she really desires is a family of her own, especially children. Once she finally achieves this, her demeanor changes and she isn’t so shrewd anymore.
The Office has a lot of lessons about love. The star couple, Jim and Pam, share a relationship that quickly becomes a focal point of the series. They both had to make lots of choices throughout the show, but even in the end, they ultimately root for each other’s personal happiness as well as their happiness together. Through Jim urging Pam to go to art school (even though it was in New York) and Pam pushing Jim into his dream job (which also pulls his time away from his family), they come out on top each time, stronger together.
One final character leaves us with mixed emotions each episode of The Office, and that is Michael Scott, the more-than-quirky, arguably insane branch manager. Through his ignorance of world ideas and his childlike view of life, he represents the weirdest part of all of us. However, he still is able to find happiness regardless of his extreme eccentricity. He finds someone that is so completely compatible with him, it reminds us, the audience, to be ourselves. Michael Scott never stopped being extremely invasive, personal, inappropriate, and distracting. He stuck with all the hyperbolic facets of his personality and was still able to find happiness and success.
As young college students, we still have a lot of growing up to do, and who better to learn about humanity from than an office full of Pennsylvanians?