The "High School Musical" memory

When I was six years old, my life changed forever. My life would be completely different after Jan. 20, 2006. On this date, the greatest movie of all time was released.

This movie is called “High School Musical.” This movie/movie series struck my generation to the core, not only because every girl wanted a Troy Bolton or wanted to be Gabriella Montez, but the music from these movies are classics. You won’t meet anyone from my generation who doesn’t know the words to “Breaking Free” from the first movie. To answer your question, you are probably thinking, yes, this might have been a slightly overdramatic introduction to this column, but when I was younger, this movie series was everything to me. 

When I graduated eighth grade and was about to start high school, there was a little hope in me that it would be exactly like “High School Musical.” To my disappointment and just about every girl my age, high school was nothing like the movie. There was no outbreak into song, no Sharpay Evans and no boy who could live up to our vision of Troy Bolton. I enjoyed high school and have a lot of amazing memories, but would I have loved to sing “Getcha Head In The Game” during volleyball practice? Yes, yes I would. I also would have liked to dance on tables in the cafeteria singing about the status quo. That would have been iconic. 

I do understand that the plot in each movie was the exact same. Troy and Gabriella would get into a fight about one or the other not being their true selves and then she would break up with him over song and leave him in the same minivan in every movie. He then sings a song about how he isn’t being true to himself. After he finds himself, he goes back to his friends and hopes Gabriella comes back for the final number. She would come back at the last 10 minutes of the movie and save the day by singing a duet with Troy; then they lived happily ever after until the next movie. No matter how bad the plots may have been, I will still show them to my children one day because they are just that good. 

I will say, however, the ending of the third movie was pretty accurate to how it feels to graduate high school, minus the musical number. At the end of the movie, the characters graduate high school and take one last look in the camera then go their separate ways. That’s how it felt when I left for college and my friends said goodbye to each other.

No matter how sad we were that high school wasn’t anything like “High School Musical,” we still play the music and memories from our childhood come back and we are 12 again. I will say, though, I think every girl who has seen that movie will forever wish that Troy Bolton will ask “Can I Have This Dance” on a rooftop in the pouring rain.