Buffy, Vampires and Me.

January 19th was the 40th birthday of Buffy Sommers, the titular heroine of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I was someone who was an on and off Buffy watcher when it was on, because sometimes I had plays and such that made it so I couldn’t watch and this was before watch later options (I am that old.) But I watched when I could and even occassionally had a watchalong with my friend where we would talk on the phone (picture a 90s cordless phone) and discuss the action as it was taking place. As an adult I went back and binged the full series, and I am thinking of doing it again.

Buffy and I are the same age (She was a couple of months older than me but born the same year) and it made it so I could relate to so much of the chaos and growing up Buffy had to experience outside of being the Slayer. Buffy was endlessly relatable. When she had problems with school/life balance, wasn’t sure what she wanted to be when she grew up, had to take on a shitty job to make it through, ended up growing up traumatically with the death of her mother, had a little sister appear out of nowhere, and lost her virginity to a literal monster.

I was one of those girls who immediately fell in love with Rupert Giles instead of one of the more logical teenage boys or you know Angel who was teenage boy adjacent (until Oz hit the scene OMG I love Seth Green). Now, when Spike hit the scene my Billy Idol loving ass immediately was like oh, that too. Please world give me a punk British librarian. (Is there a character like this? If so please let me know. Male or Female…or non-binary.)

I still sometimes look to the energy of Buffy for strength and the courage to do what is right. I recently ordered myself some stickers from etsy to make my own Buffy prayer candle because the news of her birthday really made me think of all the things I learned from her. How to walk through the fire. How beer is good. How to save the mother f#cking world.