Photo Credit: Ava’s Instagram
BMWSequel Owner (Mar) Note: Steph really hopes that her story will touch others that have gone through something similar. If you would like to reach out to her she’s more than happy to talk with anyone who has been in a similar situation. Above is a button where you can follow her on Twitter. For those that don’t know Steph helps me behind the scenes on the social media acounts. I allowed her to make a post on here telling her story of why Girl Meets World, Ava, and Maya have impacted her life and why she feels the show should get another season. It’s a long post but well worth the read and we hope that you all read it.
“When people you loved all your life suddenly decide to leave, well you sit by yourself for awhile and you’ll try to figure it out and you’ll blame yourself but it isn’t your fault. You probably won’t believe that though and you’ll think you did something wrong, but you didn’t, it isn’t your fault, most of all, you stay with your best freind. People make the wrong decisions and sometimes they decide to go away for awhile and sometimes it takes time to understand why. It isn’t your fault.”
Dear Disney Channel,
Please give Girl Meets World a 4th season. Your show has helped and impacted me in a way I never thought a TV show would or could. I realize that this is a long read but I hope you and others will read it in full. I never thought I would ever have the courage to write a post like this on such a huge public forum and website as BMWSequel.com that millions of fans follow everyday for news but your show helped overcome a lot of things this being one of them. Maya Hart instantly became my favorite character and believe it or not so did Ava Morgenstern. Maya and Ava became characters who I relate to,.Maya especially is someone who spoke to me and made me realize things that I never thought I would. You see Maya Hart(as well as Ava) and I are alike – it’s almost as if we are the same person. All my life I always felt like I was alone in this world and that noone understood me or could understand me. It wasn’t until I started watching Girl Meets World,that I started believing that I wasn’t alone. I’m 25 years old and grew up watching Boy Meets Worold. I absolutely adore this show. It has powerfully impacted my life in ways that I never thought would be capably possible. Over the past year thanks to this show I’ve been able to see things for what they really are. No one has the perfect life, not even close. Mine certainly wasn’t growing up. My mom raised me on her own from when I was six months old to when I was six years old. She barely had the money to even afford a gallon of milk or to buy food for our house. Christmas couldn’t even be afforded as well, no matter how much my mother wanted to give to me, she just couldn’t because she didn’t have the funds to do so. If she could have, she probably would have given me the world. Sadly, she wasn’t able to until years down the road. If anyone understands Maya’s life, I think I may get it more then anyone else because I’ve lived through it. I know what it’s like to have a broken family, a father whom was never around, and i also struggled with school. My mom worked all the time so she could provide for her and myself. I saw more of my aunt and uncle who raised me aside from her because she was working all the time. Once her and my father split, we didn’t see him anymore. He so easily etched us out of his life. He had a new family not long after. He moved out of state and completely ignored our existence. Like Maya I had a very difficult time understanding why my dad left.
I always assumed him leaving was a sign that it was my fault. He never gave me an explanation even years down the road when I was old enough to understand the situation had he come back to explain it to me, but he never did. All my life until a year ago I carried this burden with me that it was because of me that he left. Even when we was in my life, he was not what a father should be to a child at merely six months old. He refused to take care of me, he thought wants over needs were more important then his own daughter. He would leave me in my crib to cry and to not take care of me. For months I went through this with my mom coming home to me still in the clothes and diaper that she had put me in the night before. Being left in a room like this effected my mind span because it didn’t have room to explore and grow the first six months of my life so it took my learning level down by three years. That’s also something I had to cope with for many years. He chose to buy comic books instead of things that we essentially needed. He never gave me the attention a child needs from their father, which was what brought my mother to the decision for them to part ways because he was basically there without actually being there. It did my mother more good then harm not having him around. She always left the door open for him to come see me and visit, but he never came. She never kept from me that my adoptive father wasn’t my real father. She never kept me in the dark, not once.
As time went on and I started asking more questions about him, she got hesitant because she didn’t want me to be hurt or disappointed, so she said when I turned eighteen, if I wanted to meet him, then I could go meet him. Unfortunely that never happened because he died when I turned 16. From that point on all the grief and anxiety I had for him turned to the worst. I wasn’t the same after that. I emotionally destroyed myself for years over him and thinking that everything that happened was all my fault. How could it be my fault? I was just a little kid at the time. I spent more then half of my teenage years wondering would he be proud of me or disappointed? Am I the person that he would want me to be? Seeing all my classmates with their fathers when I was younger was also hard on me because I wanted that and couldn’t have that. I wanted him to come back so bad, I wanted to have the relationship with him that others have with their fathers, but you can’t always have what you want and they’re reasons to why that is. I would like to touch on the scene that I have quoted below and how this scene relates to me.
“When people you loved all your life suddenly decide to leave, well you sit by yourself for awhile and you’ll try to figure it out and you’ll blame yourself but it isn’t your fault. You probably won’t believe that though and you’ll think you did something wrong, but you didn’t, it isn’t your fault, most of all, you stay with your best freind. People make the wrong decisions and sometimes they decide to go away for awhile and sometimes it takes time to understand why. It isn’t your fault.”
The above quote that I wrote out from ‘Girl Meets High School Part One’ was from the conversation Maya had with Ava when her dad left her and her mother. Who would have thought a young character such as Ava would actually impact me? This scene is when it completely and full heartedly hit me that none of what I went through was my fault. No child should have to go through what I went through, but you can’t change time or a person if they aren’t willing to change themselves. People change people and they won’t change if they aren’t around you to see that they can be better if they surround themselves with better then what they had before. Maya Hart is fully the reason I’m in the better place now then I ever was before. Now that I have her lessons in the back of my head I never want them to go away. For any kid or teenager that’s currently going through this, Maya is the perfect example of why you should have hope. Good things do come to those who truly wait. I used to think hope was for suckers and that nothing good would ever happen for me because of how many people have left me in my life. I couldn’t see the good in any of what my life or this world had to offer. You don’t know what rock bottom is until you’re officially there and feel so helpless like you can’t do anything about it. I felt like I was stuck there for years until Girl Meets World opened my eyes to a different view.
“Kermit: This wasn’t you, Maya. This was all me. I couldn’t provide comfort for you on a lightning storm, and I was no good for you on a sunny day either. I blew every pay check instead of providing food for the refrigerator. And when you know you’re not good for people, you start to not showing up, and then you don’t who up enough and it begins to feel like leaving. Until you do.
Maya: You’re there for your new family, aren’t you? What did they do that I didn’t do?
Kermit: You were just a little girl. I was who I was. And there is nothing you did or could have done. I just I wasn’t ready for you or anyone. But I think I’ve changed. These people believe that I am capable of something. They don’t know who I was. They believe in who I am now.
Maya: Who are you?
Kermit: I found a job, and I managed to keep it. I came back to tell you that I am grateful for what you wrote. I am sorry for what I did…and I am happy that you are okay.
Maya: You found a job?
Kermit: I did.
Maya: Your job was to stay. Thanks for telling me your side. My teacher thinks if I forgive you, it can bring me peace. And he’s usually right about these things but I don’t see how he’s right about this one. And I can’t. Your job was to stay. You don’t think I had it in me to allow my father to grow? I’m happy I wrote to you and heard what you had to say. And it makes me feel better knowing that I had nothing to do with what you did. I always thought that this was my fault somehow, but it’s not. I didn’t do anything.”
About four months ago I learned about siblings that I’ve never met before and they didn’t know anything about me. They found me on social media and reached out to me that they wanted to get to know me. My first instinct was shock and then it turned into me being scared. My thoughts raced 1,000 miles a second wondering what if I’m not what they thought I would be? What if they don’t like me? It brought back all the emotions that I had towards my father. I wasn’t going to hold his actions against them though because he kept me a secret, they didn’t know about me for over twenty years. I’m just so terrified of people leaving me now that it almost hurts me to let people in, even my own mother sometimes. The quote above is from ‘Girl Meets The Forgiveness Project’ and honestly this episode was the homerun for me. Unlike Maya, I didn’t get the closure I wanted or needed. That was something I also needed to come to terms with on my own. I remember after this episode aired how I sat there crying for like 2 hours because of how much it affected me. I never get like that with tv shows ever. Maya Hart is the type of character I’ve always wanted to have in my life and I couldn’t imagine seeing her go unfinished like an unfinished project. That’s the whole point about Maya she was broken and as time goes on she is fixed. The ending of season 3 will not be the end of her story, she has so much more growing to do, I want to see her grow into the mature young woman she’s becoming because from aside from all the bad things that happened to her, so much good came from it. I know there’s more to her then meets the eye because I’m living it myself. I’m still growing and changing myself. Forgiving yourself is such a long process from something you didn’t choose to go through. You can’t just change from that, it happens over time. I want to see that happen for her, I want to see her get everything she wants. Another quote that I’d like to touch that impacted my life is below and is from Girl Meets The Bay Window.
“Riley, look at me. Some things mean too much to us to ever change. I don’t want this place to ever change. Look at me and tell me you understand that.”
This quote from ‘Girl Meets The Bay Window’ is yet another prime example as to why I’m just like Maya. Such as Maya, I’m terrified of change. When these new siblings came into my life I was overwhelmed because I knew things in my life would be changing. Not for the worst, but change has always scared me. I don’t like things to ever change I want them to stay exactly where they are because then it makes me feel like I won’t get hurt in a sense. Maya ended up accepting change and I strongly admired this about her because it showed me that I could have change happen if I would let it. It’s never an easy transition, but I let it happen because I would never be able to move forward with anything if I just let things in my life stay the same. Maya has connected with me in ways that no one else has, sometimes I feel like she’s talking to me when she talks about it not being your fault when something such as this happens in your life. It allows you to pick yourself back up and rebuild yourself. If you would have told me five years ago I would be where I am now I would of told that person they were crazy. I’ve been able to trust myself to get close to people and share this part of my life with my friends which is something I’ve never been able to do. The show has taught me it’s okay to feel. Maya has helped me become the strong independent woman I am today and I’ll never be able to let that go.
This is it, this is my story. I hope as you read this that it makes you consider giving the show another season because I really need it more now then ever. It keeps me grounded and sometimes teaches me things I didn’t even know about myself because I’m still learning things about myself. You never stop learning. Your mind always has room to expand for more knowledge. I truly hope when anyone reads this that it shows how much this show and Maya Hart has impacted my life and how much good has came to me from the show and her character. I really hope you consider the shows renewal. Girl Meets World deserves a Season 4. This show is truly making an impact on peoples lives and I can say that it’s truly affected and impacted mine.
Sincerely,
Stephanie Birr