"See You Next Fall" With Our Insecurities

Last night’s episode of Modern Family, “See You Next Fall”, illustrated the importance of the universal nature of insecurities.  No matter what walk of life we are at, we all have our own insecurities.  The show highlights all of these insecurities around the event of Alex’s middle school graduation.  Some characters show their insecurities clearly in the beginning of the episode, while others are drawn out unexpectedly from other character later on.

As mini storylines, “See You Next Fall” shows the insecurities of Claire, Jay, and Cam.  Claire is insecure about losing her daughters as they grow up and start to drift away from her.  She fears that she is losing them and will not be able to connect with them for much longer.  This is able to exemplify the insecurity many parents feel as their children grow older and start to go out and experience more of the real world.  With Jay, the writers show how growing age can bring about insecurities.  With Jay’s increasing age, he wants to try and look younger by hiding some of his wrinkles and getting Botox.  He tries to keep this action a secret to hide his insecurity, but his Botox injection is revealed when the injection creates visible nerve damage.  Although only a temporary ailment, the writers are able to highlight the insecurities many people get as they grow older and have to battle their age and increasing wrinkles.  Lastly, is the insecurity of Cam as he is not secure with the trivial everyday accidents he has.  Mitchell laughs at Cam when he falls into their baby pool, but Cam cannot find any humor in the situation.  Cam makes a huge fuss about Mitchell laughing at him, until at the end of the episode he sees a similar situation unfold which makes him laugh.  Modern Family is showing us that although these situations may same trivial to some people, others find them very embarrassing and can be insecure about them.  The writers are looking at both sides and showing that insecurities can come from anything.

Past the mini storylines, the main insecurity comes from Alex in this episode.  Being the self-proclaimed nerd of her class, Alex is very insecure about her popularity.  In response to this insecurity she plans to lash out at her classmates during her commencement speech.  Unexpectedly, Haley comes out and tells her exactly what “See You Next Fall” is trying to tell the viewers.  Haley explains that everybody has their issues that they are insecure, no matter if they are popular or a “nerd”.  Her own insecurities concern her future and if she is going to get into college while the rest of her friends leave for school.

In this episode, Modern Family highlights the fact that no matter how big or how small they are, we all have insecurities that we try and hide because they make us uncomfortable.  The writers teach us that instead of lashing out because of our own insecurities, it is important to embrace the fact that we all have these insecurities and we should help each other get through them.