I remember the first time I saw "Reality Bites," well in all honesty I don't remember how old I was or where I was exactly but I do remember the feeling it gave me. The feeling I felt more specifically
in the scene at the gas station which at my young age was the one that resonated with me the most. Completely oblivious of the fact that they were majorly stoned at the time, I loved the moment when Janeane Garofalo, Winona
Ryder, and Steve Zahn are so compelled to dance to "My Sharona" that they ask the
attendant to turn up the music and proceed to jump around like idiots. This is
what I thought my twenties were going to be like, not literally smoking out and
dancing like idiots which I'm sure is how a lot of people spent their twenties, but
just being so enthralled in having fun with your friends that you don't care
who sees. Now that I'm thirty I look back at how the movie spoke to me in different
ways. "I'm not going to work at the Gap" was also a line that I often
quoted and not just because I worked there but because I understood
how judged Janeane felt at that moment. This movie gave me a different point of view about being an adult that maybe my parents didn't want me to know. Up until then I thought adulthood was house payments and children, I didn't understand that you were allowed to not have it all together for awhile, that you were allowed to figure things out.
With this Mixtape Monday we chose to celebrate its 20th anniversary of this movie compiling songs inspired by the nineties featuring bands like Everclear, The Cranberries, and The Smashing Pumpkins. Come walk down memory lane with us ....
