Eng 103 - a Glimpse of My Past

Jessica Kloss

Mr. Salazar

ENG 103

15 September 2017

A Glimpse of my Past

        When I look back at my childhood, I look at how everything was always vibrant and innocent. I walked in the door after a long day of school, took off my shoes, went into the kitchen to grab a snack, and sat in front of the TV and turned on an episode of Full House. TV was my favorite part of the evening. I had many favorite TV shows as a kid, but my favorite of all of them was Full House. It was a sitcom series that took place in San Francisco, California. It was about a widowed father who raised his three daughters, DJ, Stephanie, and Michelle, with the help of his friend and his brother-in-law. I loved memorizing all of the words of the theme song, watching the Olsen twins grow up into the women they are today, and learning the catch phrases such as, “how rude”, “you got it dude”, and “have mercy”. The show aired before I was born, so I watched the reruns on ABC Family for years. I watched the show when I was around seven or eight years old. I would always watch the show with my older sister and my mom. Every once in a while, I will flip through the TV channels and watch an episode of the show. I start to see more of the life lessons that were included in the show as I grow older.

        Most popular 90s shows consisted of a traditional family structure. Full House was unique in the sense that three grown men were raising three young girls. Danny Tanner, father of three, took on a gender reversal when his wife passed away. Typically, the mother and father work together to create a family dynamic. However, the men of the show were never discredited as parental figures to the girls because they did not meet the traditional family structure. They were always there for the girls and they learned how to raise the girls together. Full House demonstrates what it means to have reversed gender roles. When I was little, I never understood the topic of a gender role until I grew up and realized that our society has become more progressive. The episode titled “Girls Will Be Boys” broke gender roles when Michelle was trying to fit into her gender label when she was surrounded by her male friends. The entire show was based around the idea of family as being the most important thing. It showed everyone that family will have your back, no matter what happens. The bond between the sisters never broke because they were all so close. When I am feeling sad or down, I turn to my sisters for comfort and compassion. I know that my sisters are there for me which is a great feeling to have.

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        I enjoyed all of the characters on the show, but my favorite character was always Stephanie. She was the middle child like myself and she was greatly sarcastic. I related to Stephanie not only because she was the middle child, but because she was always independent and caring to everyone in her family. Stephanie felt overlooked in her family sometimes because she was the middle child, so she would do things that expressed who she was as a person. She always looked up to her older sister, DJ. My sister related to DJ the most. She said, “I loved DJ because we are both the oldest sibling and we both had to learn things the hard way because we did not have an older sibling to teach us about life”. My older sister and I are close in age, so we would hang out all the time as kids. My sister was my role model, just like Stephanie’s was DJ.