Awkward: AKA: Seeing the Connections to My Own Teenage Years

Cast of Awkward (Photo Credit MTV.com)

I'm telling you, this show is my new crack, if you haven't been watching, seriously, go. Do it now. It is such a smart, funny show, and though some of it is a bit far fetched, the themes and feeling, well the teenage awkwardness, is spot on realistic.

Brace yourselves folks, I'm about travel back to my teen years and relate to an MTV show...

As I sat on the couch glued to the screen, pining for Jenna to wake and see the awesomeness that is Jake, which sidebar, I have recently found out that Brett Davern is not only LEGAL BUT OLDER than me, I no longer feel like a creeper for adoring him/Jake, I realized that I could completely see aspects of my own teen years staring back at me. I had my own "Matty" he may not have been the hottest/most popular guy in our school, like Billy Orlando, but he was cute, sweet, funny and I'm pretty sure EVERY one of my female friends had a crush on him at some point. Unlike Jenna and her Matty, there wasn't the same social divide, my "Matty" and I were friends, not overly close, but we ran in the same circles and often hung out when there was a group of us.

Sometime during my senior year, my "Matty" and I started talking on the phone, which was a bit odd at first, as he had always hated talking on the phone, but whatever the reason, we started having some pretty intimate phone calls. The thing about phone calls though, they're all talk, you don't have to take them seriously, and as I would from time to time remind him, he was all talk and didn't have the balls to actually act on any of it. Everything continued on in our relationship, at least in public, as if our chats didn't exist, which was fine by me.

Then came the day he called my bluff, you can get your mind out of the gutter, we both left V-Cards still intact, but things changed, and I developed fuzzy brain. Unlike Jenna, I was a little quicker to DTR, I remember asking, "Why did you decided to kiss me now? I mean clearly you knew I had a thing for you for awhile, so what changed?" The response: "Because I knew that I could."

Just like Jenna, it felt like a slap in the face when he told me he didn't want to be in a relationship, yet I told him it was "cool" and went along with it anyway. Why? I guess because part of my couldn't believe that the guy who I thought was so great, could actually be attracted to me. I stupidly thought that would be enough. Shocker, it wasn't, at least not for me.

Luckily, I did meet my Jake, though much later. I couldn't be happier. He's smart, and funny, and sweet and has put up with my insanity for far longer than anyone else. Most importantly, he loves me for who I am, the good, the bad and silly/crazy. Trust me it's FAR better to have a Jake than a Matty.

After hashing all that out, it reminds me how Awkward so perfectly captures the emotions/thoughts/actions of the teenage years. It's easy to see why it is their highest rated scripted show ever. Not only can teenagers now relate to what is happening, but those of us have have passed out high school days, can watch and remember when we felt exactly what these (surprisingly) well layered characters do.

Jake & Matty do the morning announcements