Friends has been my favorite show since I was about 19-years-old. My first roommates-to-soon-become-best-friends had all the seasons on DVD, and we all bonded by watching them together, me for the first time and a thousand times more. Chandler shamelessly stole the show for me, beginning to end.
I haven't really watched them in about two years. I went through the entire series with a boyfriend I didn't part ways with too well, and that kinda ruined it for me for a long while. Then I moved to Portland where the DVDs weren't on hand and were too expensive to buy. Then I moved to Nashville where they still weren't on hand. UNTIL Amazon had a crazy sale last week and I snatched the entire boxed set for myself for a steal.
A lot of life has happened since I last went through the seasons in sequence, watching the story unfold chronologically, giving the first few seasons their dues before it all gets 1000% more fantastic in the later ones. It took me a second to realize that they all start out around 25- or 26-years-old, like myself.
All relatively clueless about how their lives will play out, even the ones who know exactly what they want to do for a living.
Some with plans that were so clear, so solid, that somehow fell through their hands, and it's time to stumble through starting over.
All hopeless in their own way in the world of romance.
All with stories, all with hurts, all with future stories and future hurts.
All doing their best to get by, and loving each other in the process, and calling it "life".
After watching the first few episodes of the first season tonight, I have a smile on my face from all the laughs (Chandlerrrr) and a peace in my heart that wasn't there previously. Even twenty years ago, folks my age were doing exactly what I'm doing at 25: working to pay the bills, celebrating wins and grieving losses, keeping their chin up in love and just growing into themselves with one another. Sure, it isn't with the same five people in the same few spots in town together, but I've been blessed to the brim with community in bloom.
When I think of what life would have gone like if I'd had everything my own way, my life would be unrecognizable. I would've married the only guy I've ever loved, probably pretty young. We would've had kids, stuck with jobs that made the most sense financially, stuck around Phoenix, kept the same friends, and never think to reach for the stars and chase dreams in huge uncomfortable ways. Steady. Predictable. Comfortable. Happy.
But life has a way of not taking orders, for better or worse. And you keep swimming. And sometimes it's like floating on your back on a sunny day, sometimes it's all you can do to keep your head above water as the waves crash over you. And I think that's what I love most about this show, it's all about doing the tough stuff and the fun stuff and the beautiful stuff together, come what may.
Monica puts it perfectly in the first episode to Rachel, who just ran out on her wedding day and cut up her parents' credit cards for a new and scary beginning of adulthood:
"Welcome to the real world. It sucks. You're gonna love it."
These are the days, my friends.
The days that suck, the days we love.
Make sure to realize that before they're over.
