Gillian Jacobs of our beloved Community answers your questions about awkwardness, self-consciousness, and blurting out really weird things during sex.
Part one of two installments!
Gillian Jacobs Is Here to Help from Rookie on Vimeo or YouTube.
If you have a question about ANYTHING IN YOUR LIFE for the Rookie staff and friends, please send it to youaskedit@rookiemag.com.
Hello, you. June’s theme will be LONGING. Unlike more-acute forms of desire like desperation or need, longing is a sweet ache—more pining for something than dying for it. It’s nostalgia, homesickness, boredom, a persistent feeling of lack, dreaming of escape/the future. It’s summer: summer homes & cottages, stuffy summer bedrooms, sun-bleached memories of summers past. The shadow of September that hangs over June. It’s secret hangouts, crushes, unrequited love. Send what you’ve got here, and thanks. ♥
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I can’t even express these feelings in words.
Log in to replyAH! BRITTA! THIS IS WONDERFUL!
Log in to replyShe didn’t Britta it!
Log in to replyi’m going to the US as an exchange student… i’m afraid to make friends in american high school… but at the same time it’s so exciting…. I’m not sure that a person need a lot of friends… You can have ldozens of familiars, but one best friend
Log in to replyI’m an exchange student! Good luck!! I think you’ll definitely make friends, since people tend to get excited to have a new foreign classmate. Depending on what people are like where you’re from, you might find Americans a bit cold at first (I’m from the US, & pretty much every foreigner I know is sooo much friendlier haha), but don’t worry about that. And if you have trouble making friends, just start conversations about food & then offer to cook for people, it works :D
Log in to replyoh god i love her so much!! she answers these great and just seems like a very genuine person in general.
Log in to replyAhhh she’s such a cutie pie and this is just what I needed. All week I’ve been feeling so lonely and sad and just not noticed by people, you know? And when you’re surrounded by people at school everyday it’s just so easy to compare yourself to them and start to wonder what’s wrong with you like “why don’t I get compliments/get attention/get acceptance/etc. like they do?”. Sighsighsighsigh I don’t really have anything conclusive to say. I mean, I still feel lonely and it still sucks but I feel a little better knowing that great amazing girls sometimes feel lonely too.
Log in to replyUgh I’m so happy this was posted today. It’s going to help me through my all nighter.
Log in to replyLOVE COMMUNITY SO MUCH
so much wisdom. honest, real, and helpful.
Log in to replythat’s cool, but what if your a nerd…and that’s it. You’re not necessarily smart or artsy, your just not really sure what your interests are?
Log in to replyKeep looking. I promise you’ll find them. Don’t knock things before you give them a go; try everything. And seriously… being a nerd, any kind of nerd, is awesome. And I’m sure your very smart and artsy. :-D
Log in to replygod god god i feel the same!!!
Log in to replyNerdfighteria. Google it. Join it. Embrace it.
Log in to replyI second that command, Nerdfighters unite! :)
Log in to replyBRITTA FOR THE WIN!
Log in to replyDamn she’s cool. (And Community is really awesome.)
-kelsey
Log in to replyLittle&Trivial
“everything that makes you feel alone in high school is what’s going to make you an awesome, interesting adult”… THIS IS SO TRUE YOU GUYS.
Log in to replyI know, right?? I’m seventeen, and all the things that people don’t necessarily like about me in high school are the things that adults tell me they love.
Log in to replyThis is so ME. To me, it’s kinda okay to be nerd and lone during my high school times, because this way I can experience a sort of catharsis which will help me to figure out what do I really want. Just as Proust says, you learn who you really are only through bad times. So, while people I know post photos on facebook about how cool their lives are or laugh when they get an F because they’re too rebel and cool (A is for the nerds!1!), I read, I play instruments, I draw and I try everything I’d love to try just to figure out what makes me the person I’d love to be.
Log in to replyI have, like, three friends? That makes me feel miserable sometimes, but one day I’ll figure out this was the right thing, maybe. I can’t get over to my insecurity and my misanthropy, and I know I’m completely wrong – but I can’t find ways to talk to my classmates, because they find ‘boring’ everything that isn’t shallow and gives instant fun. I can’t pity them, they just want to have fun and they aren’t interested in self-growth, probabilly because they like themselves more than I do… I just hope I won’t regret my behave later on. Probably I’m just complaining, probably this is a nonsense rant, but I don’t want to
be average. Maybe it’s just my obsession to ‘not be like the others’ that makes me feel interested in everything regarding Art and Science? That would be so sad.
- sorry for everything LOL, also sorry for every grammar mistake, English is not my native language (I’m Italian and I live in Italy). -
((Don’t feel the need to reply me if I you think’m just complaining, even just writing it down helped me))
I totally understand you!! People around us can sometimes be so shallow, and well one that’s not will eventually feel bored with them! But you know i think its actually so great to not be EXACTLY like them, because well everyone shares atleaaast one thing in common. Im also so interested in arts, since i was a child, and trust me M a n y find that so boring and lame, but once u find those who share your same passions its AMAZING and u wish for the moment to never end. I think that people like us are quite interesting because we are so different from what society says we should be, many will not understand now, but don’t worry much about them worry for what truly matters: you and your goals. Also i know people who feel so cool abput going to summer school, while i think is it really that hard for you, to just pay attention to class? Sometimes to be different and unique takes us to do many actions that we probably wouldnt think, but you know, thats how we truly find ourselves into who we really are and what we want to do. Italy is awesome btw! Haha :)
Log in to replyI LOVE HER!
Log in to replyyou guys get the best people to do these things!!
Log in to replyI love Gillian Jacobs and this was so honest and helpful, I think. She’s just so awesome!
Log in to replyWelllll, remember that Amy Sedaris had a pretend boyfriend…and, really, he was AWESOME until he got murdered (hidden message: embrace the pathetic-ness that is your life! Or, just make fun of it) http://jezebel.com/5266003/amy-sedaris-is-married-possibly-only-in-her-imagination
Log in to replyoh my god I think I screamed when i saw this post. Britta is my favorite TV character and I LOVE Gillian.
Log in to replyMy friend is going through the same thing as the person in the last question. She has been going to the same school since 1st grade and has had the same group of friends. I can tell she is trying to rebel from the “good little Jewish girl” image. She has been wearing crazy clothes and making out with her friend’s ex-boyfriend and random girls. We have been very supportive of it and are accepting her changes. But, it seems like she doesn’t want us to know her new sides. She assumes that we will not approve of what she does and is very condescending about it. Before she even tells us, she tells us that she knows we will probably freak out because we are good little jewish girls. We love her and we have been friends with her for so long, and we will love her no matter what she does or how she changes. She seems to think that she is now to cool for us or something and has been spending less and less time with us. If she doesn’t want to be friends with us anymore, then I understand. But, if she wants us to see her other sides, then she has to try and show us. We will listen to her.
Log in to replyI can understand her and I can understand you.
Log in to replyI can see that you are such a nice,deep, supportive friend only after reading this.
I really wish I have a friend like you.
I am sure that your friend will soon realize how meaningful this frinedship is.
Have you tried getting this message across to her? Because this is the purest, nicest, sincerest thing I have ever read or heard.
I hope everything goes well between you and your friend.
Ever since the Remedial Chaos Theory episode of Community I have sang Britta’s pizza song every single time I have had pizza. Which is often because I love pizza.
Log in to replyShe is so awesome! You guys pick the coolest people!
Log in to replyGahhh, this is so cool! I have such a girl crush on her <3
=^.^=
Log in to replyI really appreciate her that much more now after seeing this. Rookie you just know how to melt my sensitive teen heart_
Log in to replyBritta (I mean, Gillian!), I love you. I really loved that recent video game episode. Those writers never miss!
Log in to replyi want to say thanks to rookie and gillian for this video, the last few months have been really tough for me, and the past week or so has been the lowest point. this video was exactly what i needed to hear.
Log in to replywoah you got Gillian Jacobs!? You guys are awesssommmeee
Log in to reply….tHIS IS AWESOME
Log in to replyGILLIAN JACOBS is the best
“Don’t stop being the smart girl for anybody, ever.”
Log in to replyLITERALLY CRYING!
Love you Gillian, and Rookie!
this was amazingly helpful! all of my best friends go to a school across town, and i often feel lonely at school. i’m glad to know i’m not the only one and that it will get better :)
Log in to replyso sweet. i really appreciate how honest she is here.
Log in to replyLove her!
Log in to replyYou have no idea how much I love Community. This has just been awesome.
Log in to replyis it just me or the link really is blocked?
Log in to replyCan she please be my second older sister? Wow. I am forever her biggest fan. Confident, inspiring, a little geeky… such a role model. It’s actually so incredibly surprising that guys weren’t all over her in high school! She’s straight up gorgeous. But I think that deprivation made her such a better person and she obviously developed a very warm and generous personality because of it.
Log in to replyso true
Log in to replyI am in college and HAD to comment:
Highschool means absolutely nothing after you graduate. I had the worst years of my life in middle school and highschool mainly due to bullying and having zero friends. I didn’t even have friends outside of highschool. I took that time to try extracurriculars, read every magazine I could get my hands on, and read a lot of books. I knew I wanted to work in fashion and though of all those as preparation, and I’m glad I did!
Log in to replyBelieve me, I hated my life even though I was doing the things I loved just because I had no one to share it with. But NEWS FLASH: highschool is forgotten in a millisecond once you go to college and join the real world because no one cares if you were the “pretty” or “popular” girls at school. They judge you solely on who you present yourself as.
And although I can’t tell you how many people told me it would get better, I didn’t believe them- until it did.
So just have solace in the fact that you will be successful whlie many aren’t if you take your passion and let it drive you to your future life. Be thankful to know there are many others in your position, I wish I had a site like this when I was younger to remind me I’m not the only one.