How FRIENDS helped me cope up with staying away from home for the first time

I’ve been an avid TV series viewer and I hardly miss anything that comes up and it has been like that since the very beginning. However, I missed out on this very important TV series that everybody would talk about, FRIENDS.

I remember when I was in school, a friend of mine from the apartment would talk about how amazing the series was but I was a novice back then and my only source of English content was songs of Enrique Iglesias, Avril Lavigne, Aqua and the famous song Mysterious Girl by Peter Andre.

Once I moved to another city for my graduation, it was a downhill road emotionally, and all I could feel was homesickness. My roommate then helped me out with a hard drive (well, hard drives were hot back then) full of TV series and movies and nicely told me to copy whatever I wanted.

I was browsing through the drive on my laptop and my eyes landed on something and I couldn’t help smiling. It was FRIENDS. I quickly downloaded that 47 GB file, and after an hour of effort, I finally had it on my laptop and I must tell you I was beaming without even having started the series.

I went ahead and started in the month of August and boy there was no looking back from it. I instantly fell in love with all the six people, and I could relate to them you know. Here I was, trying to fit in into a new city altogether, I instantly was a Rachel, who was a snob, trying to make something out of herself, the only difference was I was 18 and no husband in sight.

I was a little of Monica, who struggled hard to be the most loved in the family but didn’t succeed. I felt the same way with my new city. I always wished to be a bit of Phoebe, who was so carefree and didn’t care what the world thought of her.

FRIENDS

I was definitely a Chandler because well, I was the sarcasm queen, always have been (not very proud of it though). Ross sometimes because well I was unsure of myself, even after being the most loved by my parents. And which one of us isn’t a Joey, that innocence always remains in each one of us.

Coming back to the love of FRIENDS, it took me a mere 45 days to finish 10 seasons which equals to a whopping 236 episodes. I smiled, I laughed, I cried and felt homesick. However, my homesickness wasn’t for my house anymore, it was for Central Perk, it was for the friends I had made through a virtual medium. I cannot begin to describe the impression the series left on me, but it definitely made me stronger, bolder, and more mature to face the world.

FRIENDS CENTRAL PERK

To all those who haven’t seen it, you might feel that why would a tv series, teach you all that. Well, you’ve got to watch it to believe it. Never have I ever cried so many tears of joy, all at once.

And 10 years after having watched the show for the first time, I can definitely say, FRIENDS is not a TV series, it’s an emotion that everyone should experience.