As a self-proclaimed Rom-Com aficionado, I’ve watched my fair share of romantic comedies. Although many movies, like “Pretty Woman” and “Something's Gotta Give,” are very near and dear to my heart, I have never found one quite as relatable as “Bridget Jones’s Diary.”
The 2001 hit movie tells the story of Bridget Jones, a 30-something-year-old single woman living in London. After a disastrous run-in with an old family friend, Mark Darcy, at a New Year's party, she decides to start writing about her life in a diary, in an effort to improve it. These entries entail her drinking and smoking habits, weight and love life, which involves Mark Darcy and her boss, Daniel Cleaver.
Throughout the movie, viewers see Bridget Jones go from an insecure and self-loathing woman to one with confidence and self-acceptance. As she experiences relationship troubles with both men, job dissatisfaction and familial issues, she begins embracing her flaws and eventually realizes that she’s perfect just the way she is, or as Mark Darcy proclaims to her, “I like you very much. Just as you are.”
Although I am not a 32-year-old woman with a full-time job and a smoking habit, I find the character development of Bridget Jones to be something very relatable to my own life, even as a 20-year-old college student.
Throughout my adolescence, I struggled with my confidence in my academics and
my appearance; like Bridget, I always had a strong support system around me. But when I started college last year, that all changed. My confidence was still low; but I now struggled with my support system. Although my home friends and I have thankfully maintained a very strong relationship throughout college, we’re all in different schools, making communication harder.
In my first semester at college, I struggled immensely with this change. Without seeing my family and friends every day, I felt lost and had no idea how to reach out to new people, worsening my confidence.
This feeling of insecurity seemed to change completely after watching “Bridget Jones’s Diary.” Of course, this wasn’t the sole reason for my change in confidence. By the spring semester of my freshman year, I began meeting new people who are now some of my closest friends, and I finally began to feel comfortable in my new environment.
Over the years, and through many rom-com Google searches and seeing that the movie is often regarded as one of the best rom-coms, I decided to see what it was all about.
After watching it, I saw why it was so loved, and at first I found myself annoyed for not watching it sooner. I later realized that my first time watching it couldn’t have come at a better time. Would I have loved it if I had watched it at 12 or 13 years old? Yes, but I don’t think I would have felt the relatability of it.
Watching it in my freshman year dorm room, as a freshly 19-year-old, was the best time for me to do so. At a time when my confidence was at an all-time low, and I was only starting to feel comfortable in my new-ish environment, seeing the frazzled Bridget Jones navigate the troubles in her life and change herself for the better inspired me.
Embracing her “flaws,” like her many awkward interactions, fashion malfunctions, and obsessive calorie-counting, showed that it’s okay to not be “perfect.” By accepting herself for who she is, Bridget’s confidence and self-worth increased, and she taught many viewers, including myself, to love oneself and to be content with “just the way you are.”
Although Bridget Jones’s life and mine are very different, her development into a more confident person and her realization of her self-worth are things that I have found very relatable to my own life. Watching this movie, while also going through major changes in my life, made me feel recognized and has certainly contributed to me finding my own confidence, overall improving my life.
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Photo: Courtesy of Myanmar Student Association
