if anything the (friends) cast's somewhat lined faces have stood like a kind of testament to the dream of the show: no matter how old you get, your life can still revolve around hanging out with your friends.



my mom is always telling me, especially as i come up in years and supposed maturity, that at some point my friends will outpace me (have they not already?) and that i will be left behind. mainly this talk revolves around marriage and career. the career one is obvious to her. who would want to hang out with an unemployed waif at the tender age of forty? nobody that's who, at least in her eyes. people will gravitate towards those who have the same interests and concerns as themselves. who will be able to relate to my empty bank account when they are discussing trips to the caymans and mutual bonds?



along the same line of reasoning is the case for getting married. "when all your friends are married, what will you do? will you go hang out with them? they won't have the inclination or the time." this is the most convincing argument i have ever heard for getting married. after all, why not do what all your friends do? i mean, getting left behind must be the worst thing of all. i've talked to some people who get the same warnings from their moms. the "your friends will leave you when they get married" talk. i'm not sure what the purpose of this talk is, except to illustrate how out of touch moms' might be, at least my mom. even if my friends' all get married, they'll still welcome me with open arms right? i mean, i can always crash on the couch like always right? even if the floor is littered with playco plastic toys and gooey shit from last week? won't a friend for life always still be there even when they have a wife? i just rhymed, it's not easy.



the truth of the matter is, moms' know best. they always do. don't we look back on some of our high school friends and go "what losers, they haven't changed a bit". isn't this what will happen if you extrapolate life a few more steps down the road? doesn't the "maturity" gap just get bigger and bigger? does anyone fear being left behind when your peer group is getting married and having kids? will their talk of gerber plastic packs not relate to your talk of budweiser six packs? are we judged by what we can accomplish in relation to what our friends' are doing? will the focus of our lives turn inevitably towards family and children? instead of what are we doing this weekend? i think it will. the question is, do i care? or are there always more friends to find in loserville usa?



do some people, as part of their drive to be married, just want to be able to grow old with someone? anyone? can this friend-centric life can't forever? logically and traditionally, it can't because at some point the road forks too much and you have to walk alone or with a singular partner. somewhere along the line, people won't be able to just drop by and visit or have you drop by and visit without it feeling like an intrusion into their lives. do you concur?



but the real fiction (and true appeal) of friends is not the size of the apartment or the sex appeal of the stars so much as the much-missed, oft-lamented characteristic of dormlife: people drop by.