4 Things I Learned from a Friends Marathon on Netflix
When I was 18, my parents put together an incredible graduation party for me. I was an emotional wreck, with tears streaming down my face as I moved throughout the building, hugging everyone I encountered. After I waded through the emotions, I noticed the small details my parents snuck in without my knowledge. The moment I saw Friends, my favorite television show, playing on a TV in the corner of the room  I felt a lump rise up in my throat. As a kid, I was too little to understand Chandler's sarcasm, Joey's promiscuous behavior, or Phoebe's complicated upbringing, but these factors didn't stop me from picking from my assortment of Friends DVDs to watch with my babysitters every weekend. I was a huge fan. I knew every episode. My parents gave me a black baguetteFriends purse when I was 10, and then I set "I'll Be There for You" by The Rembrandts as the ring-back tone on my first cell phone. Friends introduced me to love and friendship, and motivated me to be responsible once I grew up Rachel Green's spending habits and struggle to find a career served as lessons. So the moment I found out Netflix released every season of Friends on January 1, I knew I had it in me to complete my favorite Friends season the first within a few days of the holiday break. Leaving Carroll, Iowa my hometown with a population 1/160th of my current home in Manhattan, to intern for an online magazine xoJane, hello! and experience city life on my own for the first time, I have had plenty of time to indulge. So there I sat, curled up on a hazelnut-colored, squishy sofa, surrounded by Christmas lights, sipping on orange juice as the theme song bounced off the faded brick walls. In two days, I rewatched 24 episodes full of gut-wrenching laughter and classic quotes that I could still recite from memory, "Ross, you got married when you were what  eight?", "Dear, God! This parachute is a knapsack!", "Oh, why not? Was I doing anything particularly . . . saucy?", "Welcome to the real world! It sucks! You're going to love it!", "So he's calling from Rome. I can call from Rome. All I have to do is go to Rome.", Not only did rewatching these specific shows unexpectedly conjure up nostalgia, but I realized I grew up believing that every friendship I would have should somehow resemble the relationships portrayed on the show. I would find my "Ross," have a caretaker best friend like Monica, and a side-kick who could make me laugh constantly like Joey., Although some aspects of Friends are not true to my life living in the Midwest pint-size apartments and spending every waking hour with the same group of people, etc., the show taught me some valuable life lessons. Here's what I learned from my marathon, "I'll Be There for You" is what friendship should be about.