friends

- is, despite what anyone might say about it, really Our Generation's show, one of the programmes that got us started on television, and it is sad to see it end. Beyond humor/entertainment/etc., I'm kind of glad that S'pore started airing it in its early days because it's given me immediate common ground with most Americans, is often one of the few matching threads in our growing-up experiences, and has helped me break the ice with people on innumerable occasions. (Friends facilitating friendships. Geddit? Wokka wokka.) Episodes get linked to memories - Chandler and Monica's wedding reminds me of my first days at Duke, the recent thanksgiving episodes recall spending time over the break on an empty campus with the folks who always stay behind - Karen, Siyin, Anu, the crazy Language Dorm guys. Farther back in the past, I associate Ross and Rachel's "we were on a break" arc with RJC, reading spoiler scripts in that novelty shop in Holland V (forget the name), daydreaming in class while Rollins read us Gulliver's Travels from cover to cover.

I'm a nostalgia freak, and though I hate playing into the hands of the media, with this show they have me where they want me. Everyone needs mental hooks on which to hang their important memories, and somehow, these have become some of mine.