Josh Misner, PhD

I just threw up in my mouth a bit.

No, not because of that but because I don’t use obvious clickbait to title my work. That said, please forgive the title and suspend your judgment for a moment.

It will all make sense later, promise.

Today, I got to thinking about The Breakfast Club, especially the essay conceptualized as a group and penned by Brian at the film’s conclusion. That’s when the most random yet curious question materialized in my foggy noggin…

What might their letter sound like if they had to write it as kids today, in 2026?

For the hell of it, I took a stab at crafting such a message.

I ran the final product by some Gen Z kids on retainer to ensure it worked for them and didn’t just sound like an old Gen X dude writing what he thinks Gen Z might say because lord knows, I don’t need to sound like Steve Buscemi in a high school hallway.

My kids and I had an interesting conversation about what they thought the core of The Breakfast Club’s message was, but what was the most intriguing insight from all this speculation?

As predictable as it is sad, that letter was timeless. The same core message translates almost flawlessly for today, despite using different terms to appeal to a different generation in a different time.

I threw in some carefully camouflaged easter eggs for communication/linguistics geeks like me, but I’ll leave those hidden for now…