 So something I've been doing recently is diving back into old movies and TV shows that I watch growing up and I want to see the lessons that they were teaching me about things like life and love and one of my favorite movies of all time was Empire Records. I used to watch that movie all the time but I guess we watched it the other day and I don't know if it's necessarily teaching us the right lessons about love. What is up everybody? This is Chris from the Rewired Soul where we talk about the problem but focus on the solution and if you're new to my channel my channel is all about mental health and it is designed for anybody who wants to improve their mental and emotional well-being so if you're into that stuff make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell. So yeah in this video I'm going to be talking a little bit about Empire Records but before before I do that did you know that I I just launched my website the RewiredSoul.com I know I've been having it up forever but it just went up I'm trying to do daily blogs so go check it out it's linked down in the description I'll put in the pin comment as well all right but yeah anyways Empire Records so I just watched it again the other night I watched this movie like probably over a hundred times growing up and first let's do a little synopsis real quick there's a bunch of characters in the Empire Records but I'm going to be specifically talking about the relationship between AJ and Corey okay so quick little rundown all right so the beginning of the movie we see that AJ clearly is in love with Corey and it goes to Joe to ask him for some advice and say yo Joe you know I'm in love with Corey how do I tell her you know and Joe's handling his own thing with Lucas and Joe's like just tell her I love you and then AJ is like pushing it off he's like you know what I'm gonna do about 137 I'm 137 I'm gonna tell Corey that I love him I love her right and basically you see Corey's perspective and Rex Manning's coming and this is her celebrity crush and she was a child she goes and she flirts with him she wants to lose her virginity to him go south anyways she runs upstairs AJ is up there she's a mess she's a wreck she's crying and AJ tells her at that point that he loves her right and she's like freaking out still caught up in her head and then AJ gets pissed he goes away later on Corey tries to come back and apologize and talk to him he doesn't want anything to do with it movie goes on a bit we find out that Corey is addicted to speed which is like methamphetamines and by the end of the movie you know Corey goes up there she talks to AJ and Corey is going off to college and AJ he decides that he's gonna go to art school by her and they're gonna be in love and all that good stuff all right quick little rundown if you want to watch the movie go watch it it's actually over on Netflix okay so yeah I want to talk about this relationship things that we were taught and maybe some things that you can relate to when it comes to getting in relationships and good and bad ideas first thing I want to touch on though real quick is like have you ever rewatched a movie that you loved as a kid but you watched it as an adult and you're like that was really weird all right so I want to real quick like there was two really weird parts of that movie okay like it's a gigantic record store and there was a part where like AJ after he was upset at Corey he like turns on Rex Manning and then it turns into like this huge like dance party in the record store and then him and Deb they started like getting freaky in the middle of the freaking uh the store and I'm like what the hell is going on and it was just maybe a couple scenes later where Corey gets pissed off at Gina and she runs outside and like jacks up like the uh Rex Manning like cardboard cut out I'm just sitting there thinking I'm like if this was real life like there was probably the same customers in that store who saw both of these scenarios go down and that is absolutely maddening all right and then you're taking into consideration the other things like you know when Warren came back and you know shot up the place but anyways anyways so yeah let's talk about this so let's talk about you know AJ okay so AJ he had this infatuation with Corey he loved Corey and they worked together by the way this is extremely common this is something common that I've I've I've seen just throughout my years and my work history I see a lot of people fall for the person that they work with and it makes sense it makes sense but it's a no no all right some of you saw the video I did on the office the other day but here's the thing like I just like to sit back and look at this thing logically okay so when we're working at any type of office or store or whatever we spend most of our day there right eight nine hours unless you're working part time okay so the people you're spending the most time with you get the closest to so I think it's common for people to become attracted to someone in the workplace and think that that's a good idea and it is almost never a good idea I know a few people where that has worked out but it is it is often a bad idea from my experience to try to date somebody in your workplace because here's the thing when you're going after that when you're going after that relationship it all sounds like in your head like oh my god we're gonna fall in love and everything's gonna be amazing and out of like when we fall in love or we have intense feelings for somebody we don't think of any of the negative we don't think of any of the negative possibilities and yeah like I guess it's kind of like pessimistic to go into any relationship with like a negative outlook on it and why would you even get with that person if you had a negative outlook but here's the reality of it like especially at that age where you know the the cast of empire records was like teenagers really like you got to figure like things have a good chance of going south like you looked at the percentage right there's probably a really high percentage that things are gonna go south and then you work with that person now you work with that person right like have any of you any of you watching this have you ever dated somebody at the office and then you guys broke up and let me know if that became awkward or weird or strange or one of you actually had to leave the job because of this because that is one of the reasons why you don't date somebody at work but again like I understand where that attraction grows because you're spending so much time with them all right so anyways yeah AJ he's like you know draws pictures of her obviously he's in love with her and everything like that well Cory she has this thing for Rex Manning okay and when she goes up there and she's completely distraught it's right after you know whatever went down with Rex Manning that was also a really weird scene by the way but anyways the first thing that I want to talk about when she goes up there and she um tells AJ what just happened and she's like sobbing and in tears and stuff like that like you can really see the selfishness in that scene because AJ so when we talk about love and we talk about being with somebody like I stayed single for so so so so long because I realized how selfish and self-centered I was all I thought about was me and it was not fair to any other partner that's why I often recommend people like if you're struggling with mental health issues like don't date until you get kind of your act together right and and you see in that like AJ if he truly loved her if like if this was a healthy love when she came up there and I know he had a set in his head to tell her that he loved her but when she came up there like she was clearly crying and everything and he's like no I'm gonna tell her that I love her right now while she's crying and sobbing it's like no no no no no in that situation AJ should drop what he's doing and say yo what's wrong what's going on you know what I mean and talk with her about it rather than succumbing to his own selfish needs of I need to tell her that I love her okay and AJ ends up getting pissed obviously and there's something else like about these relationships like AJ gets pissed that she threw herself at Rex Manning right part of it was he was pissed that she didn't reciprocate his love right then and there but that's something else that's a whole another video thing and maybe I'll talk about it when I start talking about friends where Ross is like we were on a break but just that that kind of jealousy when you're not even together you know what I mean but it seems like this justified jealousy because you have such strong feelings but the reality is when you're not together that person is free to literally do whatever the hell they want all right so as the movie goes on and Gina and Cory get into this argument we find out that Cory is addicted to methamphetamines right like she is or just amphetamines maybe I think it was just amphetamines but she's addicted to those and she uses them with the you know with the excuse that you know she has to study and things like that and and this is very common by the way many college students become addicted to like things like ADHD medications like Adderall Ritalin things like that just so they can study just so they can cram because they want to they want to get good grades or they want to get into the best school or whatever it is but we find out that Cory clearly has a problem with that so in the final scene where they they come together where they come together like this is just one of the things that I noticed like as an adult now looking back on these movies and this idea of love right so one of the things is that AJ says he's gonna move to another state just to be near Cory right he's gonna leave everything behind and just be nearer like this is often such a bad idea right when we when we sacrifice everything especially at that age like I really want to talk about like that age before the pre the good old prefrontal cortex the logical brain fully develops like it's such a bad idea to drop everything and move there like when I went up to college with my friend one of the reasons that he went up there too was to chase after his high school sweetheart and that went south real quick because she got to college maybe that's an entirely new video idea she got to college and she saw all of the other options she had and she started cheating on him and I'm not saying this is what always happens but we really got to think through before we're gonna move somewhere for somebody else this is something that happens a lot though even with adults is that I've seen this countless times countless countless times and I almost got into that situation myself many times where we have this like early kind of like honeymoon phase love and we're willing to do anything for them we'll move for them we'll go anywhere with them you know we'll let them move in with us or we'll move in with them or whatever it is in that very early stage and from my experience what I've learned like the test of a relationship isn't what it looks like when everything's at its best the true test of a relationship is how things are handled when they're at their worst right like that is the true test of the relationship I've seen so many relationships fail that were seemingly just the perfect relationship but the second the second either conflict happened or like stress like external stresses maybe somebody had like family problems or friend problems or work problems or something like that and and the two people were not ready to be there for one another in that situation then they break it off so that is one of the reasons why like so early on in a relationship making the decision to move like to be closer to somebody or move in with somebody it's such a bad idea right like we waited two years before we moved in together okay and and before that I think the only other girlfriend I lived with we were together for quite some time before we moved in without that relationship it's a hot mess anyways the last thing I want to touch on is people people who date other people who are in active drug addiction like I'm a recovering drug addict for those of you who didn't get the memo like I am in recovery and I know that people can get sober I know people can get clean but to date somebody to start dating somebody in their active addiction is the worst thing that you can do it is the absolute worst thing that you can do and something that was completely neglected was like AJ found out that Corey was addicted to drugs and then he's like okay I'm gonna move across the country for you like what dude what like I'm not saying Corey is a bad person in that situation she's a sick person who is struggling with an addiction but like that is that is either a neglecting the drug addiction or b this type of savior behavior but we see people do this how I'll use my my own experience I had plenty of women date me knowing damn well that I was a hot mess I was an alcoholic I was a drug addict there are some videos I've done in the past on codependency some people were dating me just because they wanted to fix me or just because they wanted to help me and things like that and like it wasn't fair of me to even allow them to date me but like these things they do not end well like I was telling I was telling Tristan after we're watching the movie like one thing that they don't show you in these like romance these romance movies like is what happened like a week or two later right or a month later or three months later right because I guarantee if you saw AJ and Corey's relationship a month or two later it would be a hot mess I would imagine things like AJ buying her drugs or fights happening all the time you know what I mean especially with the amount of effort that Corey is putting into school that's a whole nother topic right like AJ is moving over there and you know how Corey is about school like Corey really doesn't have the time for a relationship you know unless she gets through that whole thing and there's some talk about her dad and the pressure he puts on her and everything like that but anyways like I really want to look back at a lot of tv shows and movies and what they kind of teach us about love because like I mentioned in one of my other videos announcing that I was going to be covering movies and tv shows was that I was raised by tv and movies they taught me about what love looks like and in most cases in most cases they're unhealthy or unrealistic or both you know what I mean so if you have any examples of movies and tv shows that you think show examples of unhealthy or unrealistic love that you want me to check out and maybe do some videos on let me know down in the comments below all right but anyways that's all I got for this video if you like this video please give it a thumbs up if you're new make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell and don't forget down below brand new website brand new blog posts I'm trying to do it daily make sure you check those out all right so if you're new here make sure you subscribe ring the notification bell huge thank you to everybody supporting the channel over on patreon and if you would like to help support the channel and get some exclusive perks benefits get involved in our q and a click or tap right there all right thanks again so much for watching I'll see you next time