What we can learn from Will and Emma on Glee

A blog about my favourite Glee couple

By Virag DombayPublished 3 years ago • 3 min read

Will and Emma being the cutest couple ever

I love Glee. I'm not even going to say that it's a guilty pleasure as I quite frankly don't feel guilty in any way shape or form. When it first came out, I was obsessed. Some might have even called me a mega fan. As a theatre kid, I felt like I'd found my people and I felt like I finally had some sort of representation in pop culture media. So naturally, for Halloween, my partner, who also loves Glee, and I decided to dress up as Glee characters. We decided to dress up as Mr Schuester and Emma as my partner admittedly looks like a young Will and I have red hair, so it kinda worked for us. It wasn't until I was in an OP shop looking for a signature yellow frilly top, cardigan and signature short skirt, that I actually started to ponder on the nature of their relationship and soon come to the realisation that to this date, I think they're one of the healthiest and most supportive couples to exist on tv.

Now, I know that's a big claim and there's probably a lot of other incredibly amazing tv couples out there that I don't know about as I unfortunately work full time and find it hard to find time to binge, but hear me out. In the first episode of Glee, we see Emma convincing Will to pursue his dreams of teaching show choir instead of becoming an accountant; an occupation that his wife Terry had manipulated Will to pursue so that she got get her dream house and dream toilet ceramic toilet scrubber. Terry was telling Will constantly to compromise, whereas in both his friendship and relationship with Emma, Emma always encouraged Will to be nothing but himself. Another example was when he landed a lead in a Broadway musical and Emma encouraged him to take it, even though it broke her heart, as she knew that he had to chase his dream.

Similarly, Will did the same for Emma and not only with pursuing her dreams of being the most amazing guidance counsellor but on her journey with her OCD. Will was the first person who supported Emma with her OCD and encouraged her to seek professional help. Will always supported her, even when they'd broken up or if she was seeing someone else and checked up on her regularly. I vividly remember in season three when Will stood up for Emma when her parents called her a freak, when anyone undermined her illness really. Will loved Emma for who she was and her illness was always secondary. He never defined Emma by her OCD, like many other characters did.

And that's what I love about the two of them together and apart. Not once did they try and change each other and not once they did stop the other from chasing their dreams. Instead, they inspired each other to be their best possible selves and to chase their most impossible dreams. This is something that we can all learn from, because who are with if we don't encourage our partners dreams, if we don't support our own dreams and if we stop being ourselves? Yes, that was a rhetorical question.

I don't know about you, but I'm feeling a little bit nostalgic now so to finish off this article, here are a few links to my favourite Wemma song moments of all time. So, in no particular order:

1. Fix You

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMC53A9f-Us