Glee has always operated under the idea of being about high school misfits trying to find themselves in music. What happens when they actually do? What happens when these teenagers discover who they are and suddenly they’re thrust into a whole new world?

Last year Glee saw over half of its show’s main cast graduating high school and moving into their young adult lives.

Suddenly the idea of the high school misfits mantra has been diluted down and you’re not only dealing with the halls of McKinley High School and their problems — but the big bad world outside of it as well.

Glee’s fourth season started with “The New Rachel.” The title alone had a few different meanings throughout the show but I found it resonating most with the idea of the main character, Rachel Berry, having moved to New York at the close of the last season and seeing how she’s changed. While Lea Michele does a wonderful job portraying all of Rachel’s vulnerabilities, I never really saw a lot of her strengths off the stage.

Rachel is talented, that much is obvious. But after the Finchel romance started, I felt like they turned a great idea into a boy crazy plot device that only operated under relationship drama. The constant will-they-or-won’t-they with Finn just got tiring by the time they graduated. I had lost all connections with them because their romance just felt like it was too much. I was being asked to believe in this idea that just didn’t seem plausible.

Cut to the fourth season and we see her outside to Lima and in a place more suited to her needs and desires. Not only was she among people with the same goals as her, but she was knocked down a few pegs in the first episode. This is a Rachel I can get behind. She’s not whining over a boy or insecure because of the blond cheerleader — she’s insecure because her talent is finally measured against the talents of people on her level. This is a girl who, for once in the series, isn’t the best in the room. It’s something more relatable than ‘Oh I love Finn, I want to be with him forever.’

Glee has taken Rachel from her roots as a talented outsider and moved her forward in life. She grew up. Four episodes into the fourth season and Rachel is a new person. She’s a woman, fitting into her own skin and finally — in a move I cheered for — standing up to Finn about being able to make her own decisions. She’s not a high school girl in a college world, which most shows tend to do with their post-high school characters. She’s moving on. Finn, however, is a little lost.

The entire third season played with Finn’s future. Was he going to go to college? What would he go for? Maybe he’d go in to the Army? Maybe he’d go to LA with Puck? This is territory that a lot of graduating seniors go through. When he doesn’t get into his only college choice, loses the chance at a college scholarship, and gets a semi-honorable discharge from the army — what do you expect him to do but wander?

It’s heartbreaking seeing Finn seem so unattached to his future. The hard truth is that not everyone has an immediate plan after high school. Not everyone has had their college courses mapped out since their first play group, and Finn is living that reality. In “The Break-Up” we see Finn come back for the first time in the fourth season. It was almost like seeing an old friend for the first time since graduation.

Okay… it was exactly like that.

Spending most of his time this episode in New York with Rachel, Finn just looked out of place. During “Barely Breathing” we got to see him viewing Rachel in her new grown up role. It became even more obvious that he really wasn’t meant to be there. The episode ended with him in the choir room and it just felt right.

Finn was growing up in a different way. While Rachel was growing into a new version of herself in New York, Finn was growing into himself back home. This is a story told every year by college freshmen. Some travel across the country and some just travel across the county. There’s no wrong way to grow up.

The truth is, you don’t always have to find yourself somewhere else. Sometimes you find yourself right where you left it. Rachel found herself in New York, and I think Finn is still finding himself in that choir room. Who knows? Maybe that’s where he’s supposed to be.

Glee has never been very good at plot consistency and it’s no secret. They are starting their fourth season with an amazing beginning to a new chapter in the lives of their male and female leads. In the coming year I hope they don’t lose this momentum. I can’t wait to see what happens to Finn and whether he stays in Ohio or not. I can’t wait to see Rachel work her ass off at NYADA and prove Kate Hudson’s alcoholic ass wrong. Most of all, I can’t wait to see the characters continuing to grow up. Hopefully Mr. Schue will follow suit!