17 Things I Learned From Watching Friends

'Friends' is, without a shadow of a doubt my all-time favourite TV series. It's been getting a lot of negativity since it's been put on Netflix, but I personally still love it, and probably always will. I remember squealing with delight when my mum bought me the entire collection on DVD when I was a teen, it was my background watching during the entirety of my degree, I put it on at 2am when I can't sleep... And whenever I'm feeling just a bit rubbish I know I can pop on any episode and I'll still laugh at the jokes I've heard a thousand times before. It just never gets old.

I probably started watching Friends when I was in my early teens, and looking back now, there's a LOT of things we can learn from the show. So, in celebration of all things Friends, here are 17 I learned from my favourite characters!

1.  You don't need to be settled down and married by your mid-20s. In the pilot episode, we see Rachel appear, in her wedding dress, running away from a marriage she knew wasn't right. Despite the fact that getting married to a well-off guy and settling down was the be-all-and-end-all in her world, Rachel proved that you don't need to have a ring on it to have your life together.

2. You'll probably always care what your parents think. Aahh, Jack and Judy Gellar. The parents we all love to hate. It seemed like no matter what Monica did, her parents always had something to say about it, to the point where she hid her relationship with Chandler and lied about getting fired from her job. No matter how old you get and no matter how well you're doing, most of us will probably always care about what our parents think, and that's okay.

3. That there's an extra option during 'Rock, Paper, Scissors'. 'Fire, beats everything!' (I may have used that one once or twice).

4. The difference between 'your' and 'you're'. I still sometimes hear Ross shouting at Rachel in my head when I'm not 100% sure which one I should be using...

5. Families come in all shapes and sizes. I think Friends was the first TV show I properly watched which made me feel like coming from a single-parent family was okay, because actually, there weren't many 'nuclear' families in the show at all! Phoebe lost her mum, Chandler's dad was transgender, Ben had two mums and one dad... the list goes on!

6. You never have to completely grow up. 'Now are you gonna be a grown up and come watch TV in the fort?!' and obviously, Fireball needs a mention. Joey and Chandler are just the best because they remind us that there's nothing wrong to hanging on to your inner child.

7. Your real friends will always love your quirks. Whether it was Monica's cleaning, or Phoebe's mad ideas or Ross's obsession with dinosaurs - the group embraced each other's quirks, however wonderful and at points, downright weird. Which is reassuring for someone who was a pretty insecure teenager (and insecure even in her 20s!)

8. It's okay to be scared. When Ross finds out Carole is pregnant, when Monica gets fired, when Chandler realises he is falling for Monica, when Joey realises he is falling for Rachel, and when Rachel finds out she's having a baby. Sometimes life hands you something you weren't expecting, or something that makes you vulnerable, and in those situations, the Friends remind us that being scared, even when you're an adult, is okay.

9. Count to ten properly when getting a spray tan. I still don't really know where the Mississippi thing came from?!

10. When you do decide to settle down, do so with your best friend. I think the reason why Monica and Chandler were the perfect couple is because they're best friends. They weren't afraid of being silly and they knew each other inside and out from being friends for years. If that isn't couple goals, I don't know what is?!

11. You're not a failure for not being in your dream job. Chandler was in a job that he hated for years. It took him until his early-mid 30s to get up the courage to quit and figure out what he actually wanted. Sometimes we need to remember that this situation is so much more common then we think, and there's nothing wrong with not having your career path figured out!

12. 90s fashion is amazing. We definitely need to bring some of that back.

13. Boys can play with Barbies. I put this one into practice when babysitting a couple of one-years olds. The little boy wanted to play with a doll, and the girl wanted to play with a truck. Toys are toys, in my book.

14. Run, dance and laugh like there's no one else watching. Phoebe running and Joey's dancing is basically what we all wish we could do without feeling embarrassed, right? Maybe we should just be a little more like those two and not care so much what other people thing!

15. Forgive. None of the gang were perfect. They all wronged each other at points over the years - Chandler kissed Joey's girlfriend (and his sister, for that matter!), Ross slept with another woman (break or no break, he moved on pretty bloody quickly), Ross gave Rachel a teeny-weenie in high school, and one year they were ALL late for Thanksgiving. I think in the real world, friendships would have definitely ended over some of the stuff that went on, but maybe we should take a leaf out of their book and be a little more forgiving?

16. Honesty is the way forward. Teeny white lies and bigger lies always get found out in the show, whether that's Rachel lying to Phoebe about where she bought her apothecary table (which is basically a coffee table, isn't it?), or Monica lying to Rachel about where she was when she was secretly dating Chandler. The truth always comes out in the end!

17. Good friends are SO important. 

What have you learned from Friends?

Love,
Sian xo