Fast forward to today and we recently discovered Jane the Virgin. Okay, disclaimer: If you're not into over-analyzing and prying into a girls' brain as she makes sense of life out of a telenovela-type TV show, then stop reading right now.
But Jane entered our lives unexpectedly. Those who know me know that I hardly watch TV. We have a TV in our bedroom that I clumsily operate on a very occasional basis. When Miel is out of town, the TV never goes on. The last time I touched the remote control was over a month ago because I wanted to listen to music, and streaming a YouTube video on it was my only way of getting on-demand music (I'm no Spotify Premium user).
Ah, back to Jane. So it's a sitcom that apparently started airing in the US about a year ago, and we got our hands on the first eight episodes. I won't get into too much detail about the show because that can be easily researched, but what one needs to know is the premise of how Jane is this Latina daughter of a single mom who had her life setup "according to plan". She was perfectly on track in her life, about to finish with college (with a very-practical teaching degree) and with a boyfriend who loves her (and they were going towards the next steps of engagement > marriage > family), UNTIL she was accidentally inseminated with a rich (hot) guy's sample, thus making her a pregnant virgin. So the premise is pretty telling of how ridiculously funny some parts of the show can be (come on, accidentally, artificially inseminated?!)
Maybe it's how light-hearted the show is. Maybe it's how adorable the rich (hot) guy is. Maybe I'm relating to Jane's passion for writing which I (somehow, sometimes) have and never pursued. Maybe all the pregnancy worries makes me reflect about my own decisions of having a baby. Maybe I'm overwhelmed with "real-world" problems and the show's a perfect break off it.
Maybe -- and most likely -- it's just the typical effect of TV shows where I enjoy living vicariously through the characters, knowing that I'll never have that kind of life, yet still trying to draw inspiration and lessons from what they're experiencing...YES...while being fully aware that I'm trying to learn from people in a TV show even though I'm in the real world. Hahahahaha.
Nonetheless, it provides a good escape. Jane's a nice female character and I find her drive, enthusiasm and positivity as awesome traits to aspire to. She's (Gina Rodriguez) probably the first actress I started to follow on Instagram and it's cool how you can do that now with celebrities you like, and you get to see them "behind the scenes" and what they do outside the show (darn, that statement makes me feel so old!)
But it's so true, how media and access to information is so different now. Because I of course googled the rich (hot) guy on the show, and learned that the actor is Justin Baldoni, and he was apparently more of a filmmaker than an actor before Jane the Virgin, and that he had this wedding proposal video to his girlfriend that went viral a few years back, and that we share the exact same birth date (YEP, down to the year boys and girls!), and he follows the Bahai faith. And now I'm googling about the Bahai faith, and again I'm learning something new outside the world of Christianity that I was fully brought up in...
So if good role models, open-mindedness, honest conversations and feel-good-vibes are the measure, I'd put Jane the Virgin up there with my favorite TV shows.
And Jane, come on, JUST MARRY RAFAEL!!!!!!! (Sorry, we're just on Season 01, Episode 16).
