Once a Wildcat, always a Wildcat.
Today marks the ten year anniversary of the premiere of High School Musical. Ten years ago in 2006, no one would have ever guessed that this Disney Channel movie would still be so present. For some context, in 2006, most people had flip phones or no cell phone at all. The first iPhone wasn't even released until the next year. Taylor Swift had just released her first album, and not many people knew who she was. So, the fact that High School Musical is remembered so strongly to this day, says something in itself. Yesterday morning, most of the cast had a reunion on Good Morning America. High School Musical was our childhood. We had the karaoke CDs, the Troy Bolton posters, the T-shirts, and every school supply item we could find. Their album was the first TV Movie soundtrack to reach number one on the Billboard Top 100. They grew, and we grew alongside them. We felt emotionally invested in their lives, and to be honest, we still are. We all still have dreams of finding our own Troy Bolton. That shows the impact these three movies have had. Ten years later, we still connect with and love the story we grew up with. So why? Why are we still attached? Why is it ten years later and we still watch it? How can we still freak out when something is released or the cast is spotted together? I think it was because at any age you can relate to some part of it. No matter what stage of life you're in, you can find something that will teach you something new. In High-school it was when people struggled to fit in and find their place. Now, when we're in college, we aim to find relationships like the ones that movie taught us to dream of. Those characters became the epitome of the types of people we wanted in our lives. It was a huge movement. High School Musical portrayed that people cannot force other people to stay in a mold. Through their story, we learned to genuinely follow our dreams. We knew from then on that we were allowed to do whatever we wanted. We recognized that we can't let anyone scare us out of making your own choices. From the student body peacefully unifying with each other, we were able to push ourselves to be the type of class they became. High School Musical has been so prevalent for ten years because it was real. Which may sound bizarre considering it is a musical, but it was real. It inspired us. It inspired so many people. It is still leaving it's print on society, and it will continue to for years to come. The lessons we learned from the East High Wildcats will leave a print on our lives and inspire us in new ways for the rest of our lives. Their story is timeless, and we aimed for ours to be too. In the words of the one and only Troy Bolton, Zac Efron:
"This is only 10 years, let's have a billion more."
