- As long as I'm younger than the characters on Friends, I'm still young. The characters on the show were single, having fun, and getting in and out of life's most mundane problems while still keeping it PG. I liked that life. It seemed simple especially compared to the life that awaited me once I graduated. Most of my debaucherous college buddies from my 1st couple years in school had either dropped out or were commuting from home so that fun phase of my life was over. I had a job delivering furniture so I wasn't going home on the weekends. I was turning the corner on my degree and was heading into the home stretch so studying and paying attention actually made sense. I had a new group of friends that were younger but good kids for the most part. Most of them I still hang out with to this day. We had our whole lives ahead of us and as long as we were younger than the Friends, we had the possibility to have as much fun as they did on the show.
- I'd never be lucky enough to inherit my relative's huge apartment in NYC. I knew that once I graduated I'd need to make some money in order to have a place to live. Pretty simple. I didn't want to move back home. I'd been living on campus for a few years and I felt moving back home would allow me to get comfortable and I'd lose my momentum. Plus I was pretty sure that Stark county didn't have any big money computer jobs. The thing that I was missing was a big break. I knew I'd have to do crap work until I proved myself in the job market but wasn't sure where to even begin. My opportunity came in the form of an internship at Parma Hospital. I was green, wet behind the ears, naive, and ready to rock and roll into my future... plus I needed the credits from my internship to graduate. Thank God for my Aunt Pat! She was able to get me in to the hospital she worked at. I ended up parlaying that internship into a 12 year stint and until I made the mistake of buying a house like a day before the housing market crashed, I was saving money and preparing myself for being an adult. Plus I moved up north and thus begun my strange love affair with Cleveland.
- If I wanted the fun Friends-like times, I needed to be where the action was. Some of my scarier moments were me getting over my fear of everything and getting out there to experience life. I had the tenancy (and may still) of settling in and getting into a groove. I often let my fear of the unknown guide me into safe and predictable situations. They weren't "not fun" situations but they weren't things that Friends type of people would get into. That's life though. Work during the week and have some fun most weekends. Lather, rinse, repeat. I did notice though that the further I'd push myself into the uncomfortable, the bigger the fun payoff was! Hell I could do the whole mundane thing when I was older than the Friends right? The most fun I had was downtown. West 6th, sporting events, special events, fancy date nights... they were all so much fun and surprisingly affordable! But I was soooo far away! Every trip needed some unnecessary prep work and at times some persuading. It's hard to get people to go along with my fun nights downtown when that area was so dangerous in their minds. What to do? Well if I was going to go full bore with this whole Friends analogy, I wanted to be where the action was and in a tall building with other people. Experience it all! Enjoy the time I had left before I hit AF (after Friends) age.
Well I had my big idea. I was going to enjoy the urban life and live it up like Chandler, Ross, Rachel, and the gang. It was a scary thought. I was a small town guy and was completely out of my depth. I was told time and time again that my idea was dumb or dangerous or both. I needed a cheerleader. I needed some confidence. I needed some experience. I needed a bit of luck Life has a funny way of giving you exactly what you're looking for... looking back at it I see that. Going through it though was going to be painful, humbling, and heartbreaking. The next 5 years of my life from this point made me who I am today.
I'm 34. Ross was 36 at the end of season 10 so says the mighty internet. I could use Phoebe's age but if they can add Legolas to the Hobbit so women can ogle Orlando Bloom for 3 more movies, I can add dramatic effect to my story by not picking her to compare myself to. The legend grows!
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