Rory Gilmore Study Tree
In season four of Gilmore Girls when Rory is nearing finals week during her first semester of college, she finds herself running out of study spots. She goes to spots around the Yale campus, and none of them seem to satisfy her studying needs. Eventually after some time, she finds herself roaming around the grounds of Yale. Something comical about this is that the Gilmore women rarely find themselves outside willingly. She stumbles upon this giant oak tree off of what I imagine to be a far corner of the campus. She takes out her books and sits down with her back resting on the trunk of the tree, and surprisingly she finds herself in just the spot she had been looking for.
Gilmore Girls fans have referred to this as the Rory Gilmore study tree since that episode. Sometime during my first fall semester as a college student, my roommate and I had been walking around campus exploring all the possible spots we could study and actually be productive at. In the warmer months there are several picnic tables placed around the campus and we had the idea that that is what we were looking for. Now our campus isn’t incredibly big so options were limited. After walking back to our dorm that day we had spotted a giant tree with orange, red, and yellow leaves dancing around it. And just near it was a picnic table. Immediately we knew this was going to be our spot.
During that semester we found ourselves out by that tree many times. Although there was almost no studying happening, it served as a great place to read books for pleasure, partake in our favorite hobby known as people watching, and also one night we came to realize it was the perfect spot to catch the sunset over Merril. The picnic tables get put away sometime soon after Thanksgiving break and by the time they come back out in the spring there are only a few weeks left. Our version of the study tree serves us well during the warmer fall months and every time we walk by that tree we think of this episode of the show.
It seemed that Rory’s time with this study spot was short lived as well. In the series we see her there one other time. She goes out in hopes of her spot being open once again to complete some studying. She is quickly shot down when she sees that some college boy has claimed her spot as his, she walks away frustrated and then storms back to the tree and starts acting rather strange. The guy gets the hint that she may want something from him, so naturally she rambles and embarrasses herself slightly. The guy does not seem to budge so she storms away one again, but this time she comes back stronger. She looks dead straight at the guy and says “I’ll give you $20 for the tree,” he looks at her more confused than he had, proceeds to call her crazy, takes the $20 and leaves the tree. After accomplishing her tree mission, she sinks back into her spot on the oak and then we never see the tree again.
Categories
