Lesson #20: Goodbyes Aren't the End

As this year draws to a close, I've been thinking a lot about what it's going to be like to say goodbye to State College for the summer. I go back and fourth between being excited to see my family and friends from home and sad to leave the friends that I have made here. Although we'll be back at school next August, the end of this year is a pretty significant goodbye. I feel like I've learned so much from this first year of college and the experiences that I've had here have definitely helped me to grow as a person. As I'm sitting here, writing the last post I'll ever write for this blog, it's really hitting me how close we are to saying goodbye. But this goodbye isn't the end for us; it's the beginning of the rest of our college careers and the adventures of adulthood that we have in front of us.

So of course, to illustrate my point that goodbyes aren't really the end, I'm going to talk about the series finale of Friends.

The last episode was a whirlwind of emotions, but it provided some much needed closure to an iconic television series. For example, it's in this last episode that we finally find out what happens with Ross and Rachel. 

So far in their relationship, Ross and Rachel have been together, broken up, gotten married in Las Vegas, and had a daughter named Emma. In the last episode, Rachel has already said her goodbyes to everyone as she is moving to Paris for her job. After she leaves for the airport to catch her flight, Ross realizes that he can't let her leave without telling her how he feels. Phoebe offers to drive him to the airport and the two race off to catch Rachel before she gets of the plane.

After a turn of events (involving going to the wrong airport and a damaged left phalange) they catch Rachel right as she's about to board, but when Ross asks her to stay with him, she tells him she can't and boards the plane. Later, when Ross gets home, he sees that he has a message from Rachel on his answering machine. She tells him that she loves him and decides that she wants to get off the plane, but the message cuts out in the middle of a fight between her and the flight attendant as she's trying to get off. Ross is left asking himself, "Did she get off the plane?" when the door opens.

The episode ends with the gang back together in Monica's now-empty apartment, as Monica and Chandler are moving to the suburbs to raise their two newborn babies. The friends cherish their last few moments together before saying goodbye, and Phoebe remarks that all six friends have lived in the apartment at one time or another. Ross claims that he hadn't, but Monica reminds him of the summer in college that he stayed there and "tried to make it as a dancer." Rachel asks if Monica and Chanler have some time before they have to go to their new house, and asks if they want to get coffee. Chandler replies with the infamous last line, "Where?" and the gang makes their way out of the apartment.

Even though the friends had to say goodbye to each other, it wasn't the end of their friendship by any means, it was the beginning of a new chapter of their lives. Goodbyes can be really hard, but sometimes things have to end in order for something even better to begin.

Media courtesy of (in order of appearance):

• A Story in Your Head
• Her.ie
• NBC via Netflix
• Rebloggy
• GIPHY
• The Reading Fangirl