1. Season 2, Episode 7: Wake Up, Little Cory

In this episode, Cory and Topanga accidentally fall asleep together and spend the night in the video editing room of their school. The next morning every thinks they actually “slept together” and treats them differently—Cory gets congratulated and encourages the idea, while Topanga gets shamed. Throughout this episode they both realize that their youth is still so important to hold on to and they shouldn’t speed up the process by trying to grow up too fast. Also, they begin to understand how the same action can reflect men and women differently, and they see how this has and will affect their lives.

2. Season 4, Episode 2: Hair Today, Goon Tomorrow

This episode really focuses on body image and how difficult it is for teenagers to have a positive view of themselves. Cory feels ugly, and awkward, and just really weird all the time (basically how every teenager feels), compared to his drop-dead gorgeous girlfriend and handsome best friend. To prove the point that looks don’t matter, Topanga takes scissors and chops a big chunk of her hair off. After doing this, she realizes that she actually cares a lot about the way she looks and rushes to the hair salon only to come out looking even more stunning than before. This leads to Cory being even more self-conscious and to Topanga having a bit of an identity crisis. She always thought she was the kind of person who didn’t care about the way she looked, but in reality, she was just comfortable with her appearance.

3. Season 4, Episodes 17 & 18: A Long Walk to Pittsburgh

These episodes really hit me hard. Topanga’s parent’s jobs move them to Pittsburg ripping Topanga away from her school, friends, and Cory. This absolutely devastates them both. They try to call each other for a few weeks and soon realize that long distance really does not work. Eventually, Topanga just shows up at the Matthews' doorstep saying that she ran away from home to be with Cory. She and Cory plea to his parents to help them and Cory gives his famous speech:

“Mom listen, I haven’t been together with Topanga for 22 years, but we have been together for 16. Ok, it’s a lot longer than most couples have been together. I mean when we were born, you told me that we used to take walks in our strollers together around the block. When we were 2, we were best friends. I mean, I knew everything about this girl. I knew her favorite color, I knew her favorite food. Then we got to be 6 and Eric made fun of me because it wasn’t cool to have a best friend who was a girl or even know a girl. So for the next seven years I threw dirt at her. I like to call those the lost years. And then when I was 13, mom, she put me up against the locker and she kissed me. I mean, she gave me my first kiss. She taught me how to dance. She was always talking about these crazy things and I never understood a word she said. All I understood was that she was the girl I sat up every night thinking about. When I’m with her I feel happy to be alive, like I can do anything, even talk to you like this. So that’s what I think love is, mom…when I’m better because she’s here.”

Cory and Topanga teach us all about love in a time where high school relationships are seen as fleeting or a fantasy. They show us that no matter how old you are, your love can be true love and it can be real, despite what the world tells you.

4. Season 5, Episode 3: It’s Not You, It’s Me

This episode is about something that we all have, or will have to, deal with. Cory applies to a college that Shawn has absolutely no chance in getting into, leading them both to think of the possibility that they may not be together forever and they may grow apart. Although the episode is filled with fighting and chaos, the end reminds us all that we may not be able to physically be with our best friends for the rest of our lives, but the bond we share will always hold us together. If you really make an effort to stay so close, nothing, not even thousands of miles, can break you apart.

5. Season 5, Episode 18: If You Can’t Be With The One You Love…

In this episode, Cory and Topanga have just broken up and in an effort to numb his heartache, Cory and Shawn steal a bottle of whiskey from Cory’s dad. After this one incident, Shawn becomes a little too dependent on alcohol and starts to come home drunk every night. This obviously may not be that realistic because most people don’t become alcoholics in two weeks, but it shows us all of the negative effects alcohol can have in your life. All young adults drink, whether they’re 18 or 21, but this episode explains really well how different the reality is for addicts, or in Shawn’s case, someone with a family history of addiction. In society today, we usually think of alcoholics as 50-year-old men who drink too much beer at the bar and then go home to hit their wives. This episode challenges that stereotype by clarifying that age is not a factor with this issue. It can happen to anyone, even your best friend.

6. Season 6, Episode 13: We’ll Have A Good Time Then

This episode deals with a really tough subject matter. A parent’s death is never easy, especially when it’s a parent that you never really had a good relationship with. In the beginning, Shawn’s father, Chet, comes to visit him on campus saying he’s there to make amends and trying to make up for lost time. Within a few hours, Chet suffers a heart attack and ends up in the hospital, where Shawn finally reveals that his anger at his father is really just the fear that he’s inherited an inability to connect emotionally or love anyone completely. Almost immediately after saying this, Chet suffers another heart attack and dies. I know, it’s a heavy episode to handle. Although things this severe usually don’t happen to most of us, seeing Shawn, one of the most emotionally inept characters on this show, deal with something like this proves that anyone can get through this, even if it takes some unusual measures and coping mechanisms.

7. Season 6, Episode 18: Can I Help To Cheer You?

This episode is really upsetting because it breaks up one of the best duos of the show. Eric’s orphan “little brother,” Tommy, is getting adopted by a family that lives in California and he wants Eric to adopt him instead so that he doesn’t have to go. Eric then has to pretend that he no longer wants Tommy so that he can be happy with his new family. It’s really sad because Eric shows us that sometimes you have to be so selfless that you’re willing to hurt someone and make them hate you so that they can happier in the long run. Tommy may never forgive him, but it was for his own good.

8. Season 7, Episode 1: Show Me the Love

In this episode, while Cory and Topanga are planning for their wedding, Topanga learns that her parents are getting a divorce. Her whole life she’d regarded them as the ideal couple that she always looked up to. So when she finds out about their separation, the whole image of marriage and love in her mind comes crumbling down, and in a moment of panic, she calls off her own wedding with Cory. This teaches us about the unfortunate realities of life. On the outside some people may look completely happy and some couples may look perfect, but on the inside it’s really just anger and resentment and constant fighting. Sometimes divorce is the best option. Topanga’s parent’s divorce, however, causes her to lose hope in love completely which is exactly what it should not do. For a long time she believes that love is worthless and all marriages are doomed just because of what she sees happening with her parents. Topanga only decides to reconcile her engagement to Cory after her parents convince her to by telling her that she can not be with Cory out of fear that they will hurt each other, or she can try her best with him and hope that their marriage will be forever. Luckily, she chooses the latter.

9. Season 7, Episode 9: The Honeymoon Is Over

In this episode, Cory and Topanga come back from their honeymoon only to realize that they have nowhere to live. Cory’s parents won’t take them in and everywhere they look they can’t afford, so they are forced to move into the dingy and disgusting couples dorm. The situation Cory and Topanga are in and the way they react to it shows us that life is not always easy. They kind of act like spoiled entitled brats because they just expect other people to help them out for free, rather than act like adults and try to find a solution on their own. What I took away from this episode is that again, life is not always easy and sometimes you have to do things that you don’t want to do. However, regardless of our circumstances, we should be thankful for what we do have because it’s usually something that someone else would kill for.

10. Season 7, Episode 16: Seven The Hard Way

This episode is about how a silly childish prank war can get out of hand and maybe even ruin a friendship. Not even the wise words of Mr. Feeny could bring the gang back together. The only thing that eventually worked was when they all imagined what their lives in the future would be like without each other. Eric, posing as Plays-With-Squirrels, famously says "Lose one friend, lose all friends, lose yourself,” and they all realize that they need each other. Life without your friends is not a life worth living, especially when you lose them over a stupid fight that really means nothing.

11. Season 7, Episode 21: Angela’s Ashes

This episode is a hard one because it, once again, deals with loss. Shawn’s long time girlfriend, Angela’s military father asks her to go with him to Europe for a year, and Shawn has to decide whether he’s going to let her go or ask her to stay. Ultimately, he takes comfort in the saying “if you love something, set it free” because he supports her decision to go. This is another unfortunate reality of life. Your best friends are not always going to be there forever, and the people you grew up with may go in all different directions. Sometimes the person you love most has to leave, and sometimes you just have to be okay with that.

12. Season 7, Episodes 22 & 23: Brave New World

These episodes were absolutely the hardest one to watch throughout the entire series. Topanga gets a really good job offer in New York and after contemplating the move, she decides to accept it. After a lot of thinking, Shawn and Eric agree to go to New York as well because there was nothing really holding them in Philadelphia. Watching the whole gang say goodbye to each other was tough, but watching them say goodbye to Mr. Feeny was the worst of it all. Cory, Topanga, Shawn, and Eric show up in the classroom Feeny taught them in all their lives and said their final words. They promised him that they would be good people and that they would thrive in a new city, and they also asked if he had anything left to teach them. All he replied with was “Believe in yourselves. Dream. Try. Do good.” Then as they left, he confessed “I love you all. Class dismissed.” If this didn’t have you in tears you are doing something wrong. Mr. Feeny taught a lot of lessons in this show to not only the characters, but to us. His final lesson did not disappoint.