We’ve all watched the show “Friends” and we can all sing the theme song by heart. You know the one, it goes like “I’ll be there for you (when the rain starts to pour)/ I’ll be there for you (like I’ve been there before)/ I’ll be there for you (cause you’re there for me too)”.
Now that you’re back (because I know you had to go listen to the theme song), let’s talk about how the show defined true friendship. Through thick and thin they were there for each other, no pun intended.
Being nearly two months into college I think I have a pretty good view on what being a friend is. To be a friend, it doesn’t matter if you are 2,000 miles away or two feet away. It doesn’t matter if you have known each other since preschool or just met during a Welcome Week event. You will go through your temporary friends but then you also have your true friends. Being a friend is being there for you whenever you need it and whenever you don’t want it. Knowing that something is up even if they don’t want to admit, and being there for them even if they push you away.
Now I can’t go through every friendship between the characters of Friends because that would make me write 36 different comparisons and no college student has the time to read or even write that. But here are a few of the most important ones!
The one with the Monica and Rachel friendship. They’ve been friends since high school and they’re still friends now. Sure, they went their separate ways but when they came back together, nothing changed. They fought, Monica was there for Rachel when Ross and Rachel broke up, they stayed through Monica and Chandler moving in together, and pretty much everything in between. Friends fight, friends can go their own way, but when they came back into each other’s lives, friendship never goes away. They were more like sisters than friends by the time show ended if we’re being honest. I have friends back home from high school that I love more than anything in the world and once I see them again over breaks, nothing changes just because we were away at college.
The one with the Ross and Chandler friendship. They went to college together! We’re all going to find our Ross and Chandler. You can’t fight it. College is a time in where everyone is allowed to be themselves, where they don’t have the weight of high school weighing them down anymore. The thing is you can’t force your Ross and Chandler friendship, it just comes naturally. You also don’t want to lose a Ross and Chandler friendship though, if Ross can handle Chandler dating and marrying his sister, they can handle anything.
The one with the Chandler and Joey friendship. They weren’t friends in High School, they weren’t college roommates and at first, Chandler and Joey were really awkward together. Look at them now; they’re the best example of best friends anyone can ever think of. Joey came into Chandlers life when Chandler already had Ross, Monica, Rachel and Phoebe but Joey became one of the closet people in Chandlers life. He even has his own room in Chandler and Monica’s house. It doesn’t matter when a friend comes into your life. It doesn’t matter if you already have a ton of friends because what would the show be without Chandler and Joey?
The one with the Phoebe and Joey friendship. The friends that people wondered if they would get together but if they got together that would ruin the show. Honestly, it was hard to find a picture on Google where they weren’t kissing. That was Phoebe and Joey’s relationship within the friendship which is not to be confused with Monica and Chandler and Ross and Rachel who developed their friendships into actual relationships. Phoebe and Joey had a pure friendship which many of us develop in our life. It’s not the friend zone but just purely the friend. They never crossed that line unlike the other four. Phoebe and Joey had their own “dates”, in which they would discuss their other friends. They had their own nicknames for each other. They’re the prime example of a guy and a girl that can be close friends and never date.
The one with the group. The group that formed gradually throughout the years. The group that has their own table at Central Perk. The group that has formed the closest bond and has been through break ups and marriages, births and birthdays. The group that has an eventful Thanksgiving every year. The group that deals with their faults and communicates. It’s the group that we will all form at some point in our lives. As we go through college we will meet countless people; some we will form a bond with and others will leave. It’s a fact of life. We just got to wait and let the friend group form naturally. You’ll get your group.