I was ten years old when it started, seventeen when it ended; today I am twenty-six, and in love once again with Gilmore Girls. I remember what channel it was on, I remember what time of night it was on, and I remember how this show influenced my life. Saying I was excited when Amy Sherman-Palladino announced that 2016 would be the year we would all get our favorite gal pals back on the screen, is the understatement of this lifetime.

Once every year (almost at least) I pull out my box set of all seven season, and I have myself a marathon. This year I planned mine out over the summer, so I could catch up with them before I would be let into the whole new world waiting ahead of me. Every time my marathon ends, I feel heartbroken and happy at the same time. Depending on my speed (or how many papers I have to write at the time) I spend a few weeks of my life living in a different world. I get to live in a world where I live in a small town, where everyone knows everyone. In a world where family extends far beyond the blood lines, and where the coffee is always as strong as I like.

I’ve had many close relationships with TV shows growing up. Some kids could do math, some kids loved to play sports, and I loved to live in various fantasy worlds. With the push of a button, I could be somewhere else for a while and live someone else’s life. Now just to be clear, this is not because my life has been bad because my life has been the opposite. I had, and still have, my very own Lorelai Gilmore in my own mother (and father to be honest), but getting to be a part of so many great and different worlds when I turned on the TV is my religion. Gilmore Girls is one of the worlds I have chosen to enter time and time again.

Like many others, I was devastated when the show ended. It felt like close friends of mine were moving away and a part of me knew it wouldn’t be the same without them (yes very dramatic, I know). I know the other fans understand this because we had so many questions. When I first heard the show was finally giving me the answers I needed and wanted, I was, of course, skeptical. How many shows had tried this before-- to revive something old by either making a movie or making it “10 years after” etc? I’m not saying it hasn’t worked in some cases (Veronica Mars was much needed and perfect for example) but it’s also a huge risk of not being able to recreate the magic that the fans loved so much. Especially when it comes to a show like Gilmore Girls, a show that touched so many people.

Before events like this, I like to not speculate so much about what is going to happen. I read plenty of people’s opinions about who Rory should end up with, and what they would like to see, but I wanted to walk into this with blank pages. I wanted to get to know my girls again, talk to them for a while, and then just see what they had been up to. I was also trying to accept and imagine how they would deal with the death of the lovely Edward Herrmann, our very own Richard Gilmore. However I will say this, I was really freakin' excited to see all of Rory Gilmore’s men.

Half of me wanted to wait to watch this. I wanted to be back home in my living room with my mom and my sister and watch all four episodes all in one stretch forcing even my mom to be up past 11pm. The realistic part of me, however, knew exactly how this would go down. I would wake up, make my coffee, grab the computer before my boyfriend could, and watch until there was no more. And honestly, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Once more I was being welcomed back into the small town of Stars Hallow, and my heart was happy. For nearly ten years I have wondered about my favorite town, and how it was doing after the world went crazy, and in a world where drinking normal dark roast black coffee, without milk or sugar, is considered hardcore. To my extreme joy, my town, and my people had managed to survive while being true to themselves. Some changes, very painful but perhaps more realistic, had been made, like our favorite Sookie being such a small part of it, or how Dean only had a few lines. As for the main story lines with Lorelai, Rory, and Emily I was overjoyed to see nothing drastic had been done. I appreciate that Lorelai and Luke never had more kids because not everybody would, and not that I don’t think that would be great, but I don’t think they need one.

I would love to see more of Sookie, but I understand that in a way this is more realistic. Let’s face it a lot can happen in almost ten years, and even though we may want it to, not everything can stay the same. It’s also completely natural that Dean would be married with kids because, after all, that is the life he wanted. This is one of the key reasons I have never wanted the two of them to end up together because that was the first love, and the very first love isn’t supposed to last. If you found your first love over the age of 20 I can maybe believe it, but first loves at sixteen are not supposed to last.

The story that touched me the most was how they handled Edward Herrmann passing. This was huge to me because I loved him and I loved how Richard Gilmore was so tough and strong, but also such a gentle and warm man at heart. In my opinion, they made the story very realistic, because I do believe that losing your partner at that age has to be the most difficult. After 50 years of marriage, you loose your best friend, and you are too young to stop living. What would you do? I think, or I’d like to think, I would be like Emily. I also have to say that the way Lorelai deals with her father's death is also very realistic. So many people have a difficult relationship with their parents, and if you never got the chance to straighten it out, you struggle with being able to fully say goodbye.

They might play with the idea of Lorelai being up to her old tricks with Luke, but they made up for it. Let me be completely truthful, if they had broken up Lorelai and Luke, I would’ve been mad. I love how their lives are because that’s real life. Real life is hard sometimes, but the small moments make it worth it, and that’s what Lorelai and Luke just confirmed.

The only one character who could confirm further continuation of the show, though, was Rory and boy did she. Of course, I asked myself before watching this if I would wonder about more episodes following. Even though everyone involved has said that this was just to give the fans a real end, I had a feeling this was done to see if the show could be a show today. Think about it, what is every single Gilmore Girl’s fan thinking right now? When can we see more! This wonderful, amazing, mesmerizing, reboot shows us that Stars Hallow could still be the town we know and love. From the writers perspective, that’s what they need so the fans will work on getting the show back on the air (this is so wishful thinking but help me out fans). Rory could easily be the main story line while still keeping the relationship between Lorelai and Rory, and while we can’t play this game forever, we could at least play it until Rory chooses someone (or maybe this is one of those “everybody has their own ending in their mind” type situation?).

For me, this day will go down in history. The day when I was allowed once more, into that world I loved, and I got to be a part of my town again. Once again I am left with a feeling that I just want to watch it all over again (lol and I will right now), and keep living in my fantasy land. So before I fall back on my pink cloud of sheer joy, I would like to thank you Gilmore Girls. Thank you Amy Sherman-Palladio for doing this, thank you to all the actors for coming back to us no matter what was going on in your lives, thank you to everyone who was involved. This fan right here would like to thank you because you came back, and gave (at least me( exactly what I wanted and needed. This was magical, and I honestly feel so bad for anyone who is not Gilmore Girl’s fan because you guys are missing out.