Why Anne Shirley Is My Lifelong Role Model
My lifelong role model is a fictional character, but I’m fully convinced the world would be a better place if she were real. Here’s a bit of backstory: From elementary school through high school, I was a theater kid. I think I was in the fifth grade when I was cast in the chorus for “Anne of Green Gables” with the local theater group. I had never read the book before and knew nothing about Anne other than the songs we had to learn for callbacks. I remember falling in love with the lyrics to one of the songs from the production, I still sing it to this day to my son.
Once I thought I’d like to be a blossom on a tree
White and pink and as lazy as can be
But I’d be keen just in the spring
So now I think it over
Gee I’m glad I’m no one else but me
If you sit around and find the world is gloomy
And it isn’t just your cup of tea
It’s easy to imagine that it’s rose in bloomy
You can think of the things you want to be
So when all is said and done
Imagining’s a lot of fun
But when there are battles to be won
Be what you are it’s best by far
soon you’ll be in clover
Gee I’m glad I’m no one else but me.
It’s cheesy, but I love it. I dove into the books during the musical and never looked back. It is my all-time favorite series because of Anne Shirley and the heart she has. Even 100 years after the book was published, everything Anne stands for is still important today.
She’s an aesthete
I think a lot of my aesthete nature is what initially drew me to Anne as a role model. Everything is magical and wonderful to Anne. The sunsets, the colors of the flowers, the sound the wind makes in the trees. She showed me that we should never become used to the surroundings we experience. We should drink it all in and appreciate the nuances and beauty of the world around us.
“Oh, look, here’s a big bee just tumbled out of an apple blossom. Just think what a lovely place to live–in an apple blossom! Fancy going to sleep in it when the wind was rocking it. If I wasn’t a human girl, I think I’d like to be a bee and live among the flowers.”
She’s smart and she knows it
Anne is proud of her intelligence in a society that does not value intelligence in women. Throughout the series, she gets good grades, she loves school and she goes to college, even though that’s not the path the world wants her to take. She’s a hard worker. Anne doesn’t have all the resources our kids have today, yet it doesn’t stop her from being the best in her class. She uses the books and advice given to her by her teachers, she attends extra classes and she studies for her tests, she uses what little resources she has to become an independent woman.
I think her intelligence is what makes her so in love with life. She’s curious about everything and loves learning new things about the world around her, beyond the textbooks.
“People laugh at me because I use big words. But if you have big ideas, you have to use big words to express them, haven’t you?”
She’s a true friend
I love the way Anne approaches her friendships. Anne has many girl friends and acquaintances throughout the series, but it’s more than that. She admires other girls. She compliments them. She lifts them up. She loves girls of all kinds, from Marilla to Diana to Ruby Gillis to Philippa Gordon to Miss Cornelia. Of course, her “kindred spirit” relationship with Diana is my favorite. I love their “bosom friend” love for each other and it is something I’ve held my other friendships to as I’ve grown up.
“If we have friends we should look only for the best in them and give them the best that is in us, don’t you think?”
She’s creative and imaginative
Sure, Anne is dramatic at times, but she’s so creative and imaginative you have to love it. Remember, Anne didn’t have an easy life starting out. But she became really good at using her imagination to create a pleasant world during the time of hardship. She used her imagination in a positive way, pretending she is far, far away from her worries. This was another way in which Anne Shirley influenced me as a kid. Because of Anne, I was always confident that my vivid imagination was not weird, but something to be celebrated.
“I had made up my mind that if you didn’t come for me tonight I’d go down the track to that big wild cherry tree at the bend, and climb up into it to stay all night. I wouldn’t be a bit afraid, and it would be lovely to sleep in a wild cherry tree all white with bloom in the moonshine, don’t you think? You could imagine you were dwelling in marble halls, couldn’t you?”
She has grit
Anne was never afraid to stand up for herself against others. Like many women, she has her own images with self-image, but she never, ever lets anyone else devalue her. I always also really admired her work ethic. Anne is not afraid to get her hands dirty. She breaks the boundaries of traditional male/female roles her entire life.
“When I left Queen’s my future seemed to stretch out before me like a straight road. I thought I could see along it for many a milestone. Now there is a bend in it. I don’t know what lies around the bend, but I’m going to believe that the best does.”
I hope my kids will read Anne of Green Gables and learn as much from Anne Shirley as I did. I think we can all use more people like Anne in our lives.