Boy Meets World, "Wake Up Little Cory": How far have we come, really?
Don't be mad at Shawn, his mom smoked while she was pregnant.
Good morning and welcome to my daily sports column written by “The Sports Renaissance Man” Chase Thomas. It’s Wednesday, so that means I’m writing about Boy Meets World. Hope you enjoy it and add your email below.
Why is the prospect of being cool in school so important for so many of us?
Why does the validation from virtual strangers matter for so many of us?
I don’t have the answer for you, and neither does Cory Matthews. The latter was faced with a choice in “Wake Up Little Cory” to choose good and authentic or bad and cool. This should have been an easy decision for Cory. Classmates at school gossiped about what took place between him and Topanga. That the two lifelong friends simply fell asleep while working on the documentary is boring, so the teenagers ran with the other angle being that something actually happened making Cory “The Man” and Topanga, well, you know the distasteful adjectives that could be used here.
It was bad.
Cory, being the sheltered kid that he is, was overwhelmed as he slowly understood what Mr. Feeny was pondering about his sleepover with Topanga. For Cory, that sort of thing was not on his radar. He just thought he made a mistake for sleeping unsupervised on school property overnight, not a mistake that sometimes leads to a lifelong commitment. Cory hadn’t matured enough to even consider anyone would think this about him and Topanga -- hence his “Oh My God” lines over and over again as the wheels start turning in his head.
When you’re this naive in high school it probably means you’re not running with the cooler crowd. While Shawn falls in love five times a day, Cory shoots hoops and watches the Phillies religiously. He’s not girl-crazed like his available older brother Eric Matthews who you can reach at his home with two operators, his parents, standing by.
There is a strong part of Cory, at least at this age, that cares what his fellow classmates think about him. It’s intoxicating for Cory to be seen as a Cool Guy by Harley Keiner and the rest of the school. It’s a foreign concept to him, but he loves the feeling. Most of us did at this age. I suspect had I ever been universally seen as a Cool Guy in my high school I would have been just as overwhelmed with glee as Cory was.
The problem, of course, is that the things that will transform Cory’s reputation will ruin Topanga’s in the process. Ultimately, Cory does the right thing, but it takes pressure from his family, and Topanga, to edge him in that direction.
Life is not often this black and white.
It’s often grey.
It’s odd that even when the right thing to do is as crystal clear as it was for an ostensibly good person, they hesitate. Why do we sometimes do that? This wasn’t one of the more difficult lessons for Cory to learn. Lying to increase your clout while hurting your friend is obviously wrong. Why hesitate? To be liked by Harley? To be liked by people who don’t really care about you at all?
This was also a good reminder of the differences in actions being what really defines a person. It’s easy to believe something, it’s harder to act on it. We all struggle with this. Paul Krugman wrote an entire book on the “Conscience of a Liberal” conundrum. We might think we’re something, but if we’re not following up those internal views with outward actions, are we really that? Are we? Topanga thought she knew Cory’s heart, but he had to edit the documentary and act on remedying the situation and clearing her name. He couldn’t just say to her, privately, that she knows him and that’s not who he is. That doesn’t help anybody. Sometimes, you have to get uncomfortable to remind yourself who you are.
You can follow along with me via Disney Plus where every episode is available.
Chase Thomas is an independent sportswriter based out of Knoxville, TN where he is a graduate student at the University of Tennessee. He’s originally from Stone Mountain, GA, and has been published in VICE Sports, ESPN’s TrueHoop Network, SI’s The Cauldron, SB Nation, Screen Rant, and more. You can email him chasethomaspodcast[at]gmail.
Today on The Chase Thomas Podcast
Blue Wire's Chase Thomas is joined by TrueHoop's Coach Thorpe to talk about the NBA Playoffs, which playoff series surprised Coach the most, why Ty Lue was the best coach in the playoffs, Team USA's problems, how coaches can change Ben Simmons, building around Zion and Ingram, SGA's next jump, and if the Hawks are here to stay.