Sunspots (https://sunspots.cornellsun.com/tag/friends/)
Anyone who has binge-watched Modern Family, Full House, or any other family based sit-com can admit to laughing loudly at situations, while simultaneously smirking and thinking “this would never actually happen…”
I’ll admit, I once believed this too. The events in those shows seem too scripted to ever actually happen. The timing too perfect. The misunderstandings too construed. The setbacks too unlucky.
We all get a warm feeling when we see the Friends cast laugh together as “I’ll be there for you” plays in the background… because they really will always be there for us. No matter how lonely or bad we’re feeling, we can always count on the Central Perk squad from the world’s most popular sitcom to cheer us up…
I certainly counted on Friends being just a couple of clicks away my entire first week at Cornell, since I was homesick and everything outside of the four walls of Bauer Hall seemed scary. As I binged my way through Friends, I realized they did more than just hold my hand when I needed it, they also showed me how to make amazing friends. By watching how they treated each other as they went through life, we can learn a lot about what to do and not do when trying to find our own friends. Each main character provides real world lessons, especially for us Cornell Freshmen:
Monica – be welcoming.
A close friend of mine once told me to seek discomfort. Actually, that’s not true at all. She’s said it much more than just once; like, every time we get in the car together. Of course, we all have that one friend or family member that more than occasionally gets stuck on his/her soapbox. And we also have that one friend who, once they get stuck on something, is about as easy and painless to unstick as a band-aid.
You’re walking straight down College Ave. and find that someone else is walking straight at you. You both realize a bit too late that an unfortunate collision is imminent, so you each try to get out of the other person’s way at the last second. You both move in the same direction. Then you both hop back the other way.
“Tell me a story,” is a phrase that seems to come out of my mouth, or be sent via text message quite often. Sometimes, I am just looking for something to pass the time, idle gossip about people I don’t know and will never meet. But, other times I am looking for a story with purpose, to learn something new. People consider stories relics from childhood. They remember their parents reading to them in bed with a big story book about a mythical land, a prince, a princess, a villain, a moral to the story, and a happy ending.
While reading through my group chat notifications the other day, I noticed a little scuffle building in one of the groups chats that I was in: What had begun with a playful changing around of group nicknames soon escalated to personal jabs at different group members and real life drama. And at this I scoffed. For someone to be actually hurt by something said in a less-than-half-serious online space where memes, stickers and other online shenanigans run rampant is absolutely childish, no? Possibly, but reflecting upon my own experiences, this isn’t the first time, nor the first group chat that I’ve been in that’s had its online problems leak into the real world. Experiences like these that have led me to question: Is there something more to group chats?