Buffy The Vampire Slayer

Over the course of seven seasons, Buffy the Vampire Slayer taught us many a lesson about school (nothing beats good old-fashioned research!), life ("The hardest thing in this world is to live in it") and love ("Weird love’s better than no love"), but it also taught us a lot about family.

In the Season 5 episode "Family," when Tara Maclay’s (Amber Benson) father and cousins come to visit her at college, they bring with them old superstitions: When the Maclay girls turn 20, the demon within them supposedly comes out, so Tara must return home before that demon is unleashed upon her unsuspecting friends. But as Spike puts it to Tara’s father: "That’s just a family legend, am I right? Just a bit of spin to keep the ladies in line."

Going away to college is often the first time many of us are separated from our parents for an extended period of time, and though it can be a frightening experience, it’s also an opportunity to discover a new kind of family: our friends.

Buffy: You want to take Tara out of here against her will? You gotta come through me.
Dawn: And me!
Mr. Maclay: Is this a joke? I’m not going to be threatened by two little girls.
Dawn: You don’t want to mess with us.
Buffy: She’s a hair-puller.
Giles: And you’re not just dealing with, uh, two little girls.
Xander: You’re dealing with all of us.
Spike: ’Cept me.
Xander: ’Cept Spike.
Spike: I don’t care what happens.
Mr. Maclay: This is insane. You people have no right to interfere with Tara’s affairs. We are her blood kin! Who the hell are you?
Buffy: We’re family.

So if your family shows up at your college on parents’ weekend to question your alternative lifestyle, don’t forget about the family you can create around you. (It doesn’t hurt if one of them is a vampire slayer and your girlfriend’s a powerful witch, either.)