Parks and Recreation Supplemental Post: April Ludgate

I know, I know, these are taking longer to complete than I thought, but at least I am doing them. My life is crazy right now, and it's not even November yet. Did you know that working two jobs, trying to find a full-time one, looking for a roommate, prepping to write 50,000 words in 30 days, keeping up (somewhat) with a blog, sleeping, having a sort-of social life, eating, exercising, etc. is really hard to do*?

Anyway, today is April's Day!

Via Hollywood.com

I honestly think that people want to be the April of their friend/work groups because she's so distinctively different from the rest of the cast: she's morbid, zany, antisocial, random, and secure in who she is as a person, which is not necessarily common in younger people. I know when I was her age at the beginning of the series, I was figuring out who I was and what I wanted out of life. While she may not have known the latter part, she was confident in her personality from the get-go, and that's definitely something that people would be drawn to.

Via Buzzfeed

I've read several articles and blog posts about April losing her unpredictable edge, simply becoming another cog in the government machine, but I posit this: she was growing up. A surly teenager is pretty standard TV fare (hi, Roseanne's Darlene!), but that can only last so long before you're just like, "Dude, you're a damn adult. Stop being an ass." Unlike Ron, who is essentially the same person he was at the beginning of the show, April maintains her spontaneity and tendency to just weird people out with non sequiturs, but through the effervescent efforts of Leslie and Andy's neverending childishness, she becomes this highly motivated, dedicated person who cares about others, even if she presents it in a different way than most. It is this gradual evolution that makes her one of the more interesting characters on the show.   

Like I said in my Favorite April Moment post, I feel a particular kinship with April in that my definition of what is normal does not match up with what is presented by our culture. I don't necessarily want that nuclear family model, and the only reason I am looking for a full-time job with a set schedule is for insurance and the ability to pay my damn bills**. But what I want to do is live in an RV with my cats and go wherever the hell I wanna go. This dumb world requires dumb money, though, so whatever. I did the whole get married and buy a house thing, and I was miserable***. My life isn't super easy right now, obviously, but I'm getting back to being who I want to be. I think April would be proud. 

FAVORITE APRIL MOMENT

PARKS AND REC CHALLENGE

* It is. 

** And also for structure, because if I don't have that, I'll forget that I need to eat or go to sleep or whatever. I have a hard time keeping to my own schedule and should probably work on that, considering I'm almost 34 fucking years old.
*** I was miserable for a lot of reasons, but that's another conversation for another time.