Lesson #8: Don't Be Afraid to Try New Things

I'm someone who loves to discover new things; I'll try anything once. I think that entering into college this year has been so much fun for me for that very reason--I've already had so many opportunities to try new things. I've met new people, made new friends, and become involved in several organizations on campus, just to name a few. This semester has really pushed me out of my comfort zone, and I'm so grateful for that. I think that amazing things can happen to you when you branch out from what you're familiar with and try something different. It can be a little scary, but sometimes the coolest things in life are the things you haven't tried yet!

A great example of someone who really stepped out of his comfort zone and tried something new is Chandler. For the first eight seasons of the series, Chandler works in an office at un unspecified company, first as a Data Processor. He clearly despises this job and decides to quit during the first season when his boss offers him a promotion. His reasoning is that if he were to take the promotion, "it would be like admitting that's actually what I do." However, his boss calls to offer him a generous raise and Chandler eventually agrees to take the job as Processing Supervisor. He keeps this job for the next seven years, although it is a running joke on the show that no one actually knows what Chandler does.

When Chanler's job transfers him to Tulsa and requires him to spend Christmas there, he figures out that he would rather be spending time with his wife and friends, so he decides to quit for good. However, this presents him with a serious challenge as he "doesn't know what to do with [his] life anymore." Monica helps him consider possible career choices and he decides that he wants to pursue a job in advertising, something that he's never done before. He ends up having a real talent for it and becomes a Junior Advertising Copywriter.

Because of his willingness to step outside of his comfort zone and try something new, Chandler was able to find a job that he was passionate about and actually enjoyed doing.

However, as we learned last week, things don't always work out for the best, but that doesn't mean you still shouldn't try them! Sometimes you have to risk failure in order to discover something amazing. That being said, sometimes all you discover is that you should never try to make a trifle ever, ever again.

 

In another Thanksgiving-themed example, Rachel decides to do something that she doesn't often attempt: cook. For Thanksgiving dinner, she tells everyone that she's going to be in charge of making the desert, an english trifle that she found the recipe for in a magazine. However, two of the magazine pages stick together and she ends up making half of a trifle and half of a shepherd's pie.

Her friends are gracious about it and eat the trifle anyway, but Rachel eventually learns that the dessert, in the words of Ross, "tastes like feet." 

Even though it might not always be a success, I still really believe that it's important to try new things. You may not get the result that you were looking for, but I can guarantee that you by branching out, you will always learn something about yourself, whether it's your talent for coming up with advertising slogans for everyday objects or your inability to make a trifle.

Media courtesy of (in order of appearance):

• Transponsters
• Ashley Nichole
• Bustle.com
• TBS

Lesson #7: Things Don't Always Turn out the Way You Plan

As someone who likes to overthink and over-analyze many of life's situations, this is a lesson that I still sometimes have trouble with. It's hard when you put a lot of thought or effort into something and it still doesn't go the way you wanted, but (and I KNOW this is a cliché) that's life. We don't always get a say in how things turn out, but we do get do choose how we handle these outcomes. There have been many times in my life that things haven't turned out exactly the way I wanted or expected them to, but whether that was good or bad depended on how I decided to view the situation. I think that Friends does a really great job of illustrating this concept, because things rarely seem to work out exactly the way you think it will for this bunch, but they really manage to make the best of it.

So with Thanksgiving coming up in the next few weeks, what better example is there than the episode where Monica's first Thanksgiving dinner was ruined by a giant inflatable Underdog balloon?

Okay so maybe it wasn't exactly Underdog's fault, but when Monica agrees to cook Thanksgiving dinner for everyone, she is interrupted when Chandler bursts in the apartment to tell everyone that the Underdog balloon in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade has gotten lose and this might be everyone's only chance to see "an 80-ft inflatable dog loose over the city." The group runs out the door to get to the roof, and Rachel and Monica forget to grab the keys to the apartment, thinking the other one has grabbed them. They get back and realize that neither has the key, and while Chandler and Joey have a spare, it takes a while for them to locate it. By the time they manage to get back into the apartment, the turkey is burnt and the Thanksgiving dinner that Monica has worked so hard to make is ruined.

Obviously, Monica is pretty upset that an entire day's worth of slaving away in the kitchen has quite literally gone up in smoke. It also doesn't make it better that following Rachel's complaints that she missed her flight to see her family, Joey exclaims that they "all had better plans, okay? This was nobody's first choice!" And although he's right (Monica and Ross were going to spend the holiday with their parents, Joey was going to go home to see his family, and Rachel was going to go skiing with her family in Vail), Monica takes offense to this comment. The group breaks out into an argument and the scene jumps to several hours later where the group is somberly sitting around, no longer speaking. Seconds later, however, Phoebe makes an observation that changes the mood.

Even though this Thanksgiving dinner was not at all how anyone thought it would be, things still turned out pretty well because the important elements of the holidays—family and friends—were still there. Even Chandler, who generally hates Thanksgiving, was really glad that the day's disastrous events had transpired in order to bring them all together.

So, things might not always turn out the way you plan. I know that "no one told you life was gonna be this way [*clapclapclapclap*]" but sometimes you just have to roll with the changes and make the best of them.

Images/Videos Courtesy of:

• paperblog
• Caitlyn Walter

Lesson #6: Good Friends Last a Lifetime

Over the span of our lifetimes, we will form hundreds of friendships. However, only a few of those friendships will stand the test of time. These friendships are typically made when we are younger and are carried on through our adult lives. I am lucky enough to still be best friends with a girl that I met in third grade, and I know that no matter how many years go by, she will continue to remain my best friend. Friendships like that don't come along very often; they truly are blessings and we shouldn't take them for granted. The importance of having these sort of long-term friendships is highlighted in Friends by two best friend duos: Monica & Rachel and Chandler & Ross.

Monica and Rachel

Monica and Rachel have known each other since grade school, making them the pair with the longest friendship of any of the other characters on the show. They were friends long before Rachel's new nose, Monica's weight loss, and the creation of the friends gang. They were also there for each other through all of life's important moments, like Rachel's first job, Monica's wedding, and the birth of their children.

One of the things that makes Monica and Rachel's friendship unique from some of the other relationships on the show is that we get to see further back into their past via flashbacks. This provides us with an insight into how deep their friendship is and how it has grown over the years. It also allows us to enjoy some of their sick 80s dance moves.

Monica and Rachel showed us the definition of best friend goals over the period of ten seasons. They showed us what it means to have someone's back and support them in whatever they do, because they'll be there for you.

Chandler and Ross

After Monica and Rachel, Chandler and Ross have the next-longest running friendship on the show, having been best friends since they were roommates in college. They've been together through some questionable fashion choices and even formed a band together (Way? No Way!).

Chandler and Ross are another best friend duo that has clearly withstood the test of time, however they never got as much attention as Monica and Rachel's friendship. Even though their relationship was seriously under-appreciated, we were still able to see it developed in a similar fashion to the girls': through flashbacks. In the video clip above, we see Chandler and Ross make a pact to both refrain from asking a woman out so as to not hurt their friendship. This act demonstrates how important the friendship is to both of them (....even though we find out later in this episode that the pact was broken years ago).

Something that deepens their friendship even more is when Chandler begins to date Monica, who is Ross's sister. At first when he hears the news, Ross is slightly upset.

However, upon further reflection, he determines that there is no one else he would trust more than his best friend to date his little sister. When Monica and Chandler get married, Chandler asks Ross to be his best man because there is no one he would rather have by his side than his best friend. 

Images courtesy of (in order of appearance):

• Bustle
• Wikia
• thepreppybrunette
• hell-yeahfriends
• phdross
• pinterest
• rachel9kim

Lesson #5: Be Yourself

Okay I know, this sounds like one of those cheesy things your mom tells you while pinching your cheek as you're getting ready to leave for your first day of school. But you know what? As cliche as this lesson may sound, it's one that not very many people learn until later in life (if they learn it at all). Being yourself can be a really difficult thing to be, especially if who you are is seemingly different from everyone else. As a society, we are constantly trying to fit in with what we think are the social norms. However, it doesn't have to be this way, and that is where I think we could all take a page out of Phoebe's book.

Phoebe Buffay has never been one to conform to society's expectations. She may have some strange or quirky qualities, but she was never afraid to show the world who she was. One way that Phoebe was really able to express herself was through her music. If you're not familiar with any of her compositions, here is (in my humble opinion) some of her best work:

In season 2, Phoebe is "discovered" by a record company who asks her to come in to record "Smelly Cat" and make a music video. Upon viewing the final product however, the friends are slightly shocked at the way it turned out.

Once Phoebe realizes that she is not the person singing in the video and that they have hired someone else to be the "voice lady," she refuses to work with the record label or release the rights to "Smelly Cat." This shows Phoebe's integrity and the pride she takes in her work, no matter how eclectic or strange others might consider it to be.

Phoebe also isn't afraid to try new things, as evidenced in season 10 when she decided to change her name. After Phoebe marries Mike, she decides that she wants to take his last name. However, while she is filling out the form, she discovers that she can change her name to anything she wants. She decides that this is "an opportunity to be creative" and so naturally she goes with Princess Consuela Banana Hammock.

There was also the time where Rachel and Phoebe decided to start running together. Little did Rachel know, however, that when Phoebe runs, it looks like this:

Rachel is so embarrassed by the way that Phoebe runs that she tells Phoebe that she hurt her ankle and can no longer run with her. However, Phoebe eventually finds out that Rachel was lying and confronts her about it. Rachel says that she cares what the people who saw them running together thought of them, and Phoebe simply replies, "Why do you care?" She then goes on to tell Rachel that she runs this way because it's more "free" and that running the way she did when she was a kid is the only way that it's fun for her. Rachel eventually learns to embrace Phoebe's strange way of running and tells her that she was right, she doesn't mind that people are staring at her because she's doing something that she enjoys.

Overall, I think Phoebe is an excellent example of what it means to truly embrace who you are and just be yourself.

Images and videos courtesy of (in order of appearance): 

• fyeahfriendsgifs
• 2luh3
• Ipss
• ohyeahfriendsyeah
• stylewack
• corrinefelkins

Lesson #4: Get a Job You That Love, But Don't Be Afraid to Work Hard for It

Believe it or not, getting a good job that I actually like is something that I actually think a lot about right now. For one thing, that's a big reason why I'm currently attending college. I want to set the foundation for my future now because I know how important it is to love what you do.

So in my first post I briefly mentioned how Rachel went from a spoiled rich girl to a successful business woman, but clearly that job didn't just fall into her lap. She had to start from the bottom and work her way up.

Rachel entered the working world at 23 years old when she got her first job waitressing at Central Perk. Although this wasn't her dream job, she took what she could get and made the best of it. However, after working at the coffee shop for two-and-a-half years, Rachel decides to quit her job and pursue her dream career in the fashion industry. By letting go of this safety net, Rachel opens herself up to find a job that she loves and takes a position as an assistant at Fortunata Fashions. Even though this is one step closer to her dream, Rachel still finds herself doing trivial tasks like making coffee (still) and untangling hangers.

However, Rachel doesn't have to stick it out for too long, because she is soon offered a job at Bloomingdales as a buyer and personal shopper for the department store. After two years of working at this job, she is offered an even better one as an executive at Ralph Lauren. Although her interview doesn't go very well, she still manages to get the job by showing her determination and passion for the fashion industry.

Rachel's transition from waitress to successful business woman shows that hard work pays off and that in order to get the job you want, you have to be willing to put some time in. Another one of the friends who certainly knows a lot about putting time into his career is Joey.

As an actor, Joey has certainly seen many ups and downs in his career. When the series began, he took less-than-ideal roles in obscure plays, commercials, and subway advertisements for STD clinics.

Although Joey has had some low points in his career, he has also had some impressive achievements. For example, he had a recurring role as Dr. Drake Ramoray on the popular soap opera Days of Our Lives. While he loses this role on the show for claiming to write his own lines (and his character is killed off after falling down an elevator shaft), they eventual bring him back on, this time as another character who had her brain transplanted into Dr. Ramoray's body. He is later nominated for an award for Best Returning Character.

Joey has also had some other notable roles, such as Al Pacino's "butt double" and the main character on the tv show Mac and C.H.E.E.S.E., a show about a detective and his crime-solving robot. In addition to his work as an actor, Joey has often had to pick up odd-jobs, such as a Christmas elf at the mall, a cologne sampler at a department store, a Christmas tree salesman, a museum tour guide, and a waiter.

These additional jobs, rather than detracting from Joey's career as an actor, show his dedication towards his passion; he's willing to take on various odd-jobs in order to continue making a living rather that giving up acting altogether to find a more practical job.

Throughout the series, both Rachel and Joey are prime examples of what it means to work hard and achieve your dreams. They both work in fields that some may consider impractical or hard to find work in, but they manage to be successful in their careers through determination and perserverance.




Images courtesy of (in order of appearance):

• Tumblr
• personal image made using imgflip
• photobucket
• Love Lace
• Friends Wikia
• Tumblr
• Tumblr