When I was eleven years old, my Stepfather forced me to watch the 80’s classic The Breakfast Club with him. The man owned every classic — cult or otherwise — on VHS and enjoyed forcing me to sit through them with him. It almost became a running joke, what terribly cheesy movie could he convince me to watch with him next? So when he popped in the The Breakfast Club, I had no idea it would quickly become one of my all time favorites.
The movie centers around five students attending Saturday detention. What’s most intriguing about these five characters is they represent the five archetypes that just about every student in America falls into: the smart kid, the athlete, the ‘prom queen’, the basket case and the rebel without a cause.
Judd Nelson plays the rebel, John Bender. It is Bender who kept me interested in the movie itself as I watched. Before the movie was over, I wanted to be John Bender. I felt as though there was a Bender living inside of me, screaming to be let free. From the moment he asked Principal Vernon “Does Barry Manilow know you raid his wardrobe?” — I knew I had found an idol.
Though I’ve always been considered intelligent, I never quite fit the role of the brain. My mouth was too loud and my wit was too sharp. I loved sports growing up but could never be bothered with them on an organized level, I preferred a good school yard game of stick ball over the likes of public league state championships. I had plenty of friends but was far from prom king. And while we all have our basket case moments, that prototype didn’t fit me either.
Bender was a cynical contrarian who questioned authority by default, much like I found myself doing more often at school. The answer “Because I said so” never sufficed for me. It was one of those blanket statements made by a so called authority figure whose argument had no logical basis to it.
I rejected popular opinions and trends just for the sake of doing so. Whatever the In thing was, I wanted out of it. Rarely did I have an interest in whatever the new trend was. When wearing white tee shirts became cool, I couldn’t be caught dead in one. I’ve always gone against society’s status quo and paid little mind to social norms. For better or worse, I’m basically a real life version of Bender from The Breakfast Club.
Popularity never intrigued me and authority annoyed me. I march to the beat of my own drum and pay little mind to who thinks what about me. I was too cool for school — both figuratively and literally — and racked up my fair share of Saturday detentions. The difference between Bender and I is, I didn’t show up for those either and the prom queen didn’t fall in love with me at the end of the movie.
I’m Basically John Bender From The Breakfast Club was originally published in The Ascent on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
