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The world was just so full of possibilities. Friends were more important than anybody. Relationships were exciting. The world was open and out there waiting to be travelled.
Thomas Gray had said ‘Youth smiles without any reason. It is one of its chiefest charms.’. And isn’t that what being ‘young’ is all about? Being happy, being hopeful!
They say, age is just a matter of the mind! We are as young as we feel ourselves to be. Nonetheless, the stage and age of those youthful years are a pleasure of it’s own.
Watching the F.R.I.E.N.D.S reunion did take us ( R&S ) back in time…
(S Says)
After the reunion, I couldn’t help but start re-watching one of my favorite serials all over again – F.R.I.E.N.D.S.
And it still is that good! I was laughing as the gang tried to ‘pivot’, and teared up again as Monica & Chandler finally got together or when Phoebe gave away her babies or even when Rachel proclaimed to herself that she has magic beans! Maybe the last one was just out of pure nostalgia…but it is true that I found myself tearing up a whole lot more than I had when I’d first watched it in my early twenties. I guess it was that time in my life I was missing and, watching F.R.I.E.N.D.S. just brought it all back again.
Anyway, what I couldn’t help feeling is (not just how young the cast looked) how incredibly starry-eyed they all were. I was too, back then. The world was just so full of possibilities. Friends were more important than anybody. Relationships were exciting. The world was open and out there waiting to be travelled. Careers were just taking off…
And I think times were a tad simpler than now. I don’t know if it is just the T.V. serials now, but doesn’t everything seem jaded, R?
(R Says)
S, not that I am up to date on TV shows of the ‘young’ but the few that I have watched ,’Never have I ever’ , or ‘To All the Boys I Have Loved Before’ and a few more, the names of which I can’t remember. These deal with issues and complicated ones too, interlaced with relationships. It makes one feel that the youth of today have so much to go through and keep up with…
Comparing that with the ‘F.R.I.E.N.D.S’ of our times, definitely makes me feel that it was simpler back then, and times now make me feel jaded too. However I can’t get into the shoes of the current 20 year olds to know exactly how they feel.
Around my young cousins I do feel that they are a lot more mature than I probably was. They definitely have more issues to deal with than I did but they still have that youthful glory and hope for the future, exactly the way I did.
Coming back to us, life in our twenties was definitely a lot of looking forward to – to an exciting career, to blooming relationships, to just one person to think about, which was us. No one was responsible for us and we were not responsible for anyone, at least for the most part.
One could take on adventures of any kind, without giving too much thought.
There were uncertainties of what’s going to happen next, but it made every day more exciting than the day before.
There were advices galore that one should get ‘settled’ in life, and we were in no hurry.
So do I miss all that? yes for sure!
Now that life is set into a mold and no more big decisions need to be taken, it definitely has got boring.
Makes me feel old…But nothing can ever turn back the wheels of time.
So the question is, what do we look forward to? Maybe there is a lot of options out there which we are not exploring, bogged down my mundane routine and responsibilities?
What do you think, S?
Life comes in phases. And we are in the ‘mundane’ phase of life. Even if we wanted to, we couldn’t cast aside some things in favor of excitement of the old. Face it, with young kids the excitement of an amusement park is just about all we can reliably plan.
And it’s okay, I think. We couldn’t keep going at the same speed we used to, because sooner or letter the excitement runs out. This phase is good too. We have the wonder of watching the world through our kids’ eyes. And I love plopping down with them every now and then, with some of the oldies I loved as a kid.
Still, while I am content to catch up on all the family content out there (read Disney movies), it is the upcoming phase which has me worried. The young teens and adults. If all the televised content are any indication – think ‘Thirteen reason why’ or ‘Gossip Girl’ – the youth of today has a lot on their plate to say the least.
Maybe youth has always worried the older generation. I remember even when I used to watch FRIENDS, my parents certainly had a thing or two to say about it – with casual dating, sex and some other ‘adult’ stuff underneath all the laugh track. It certainly did not fit in with their world view. Just as we are uncomfortable with the current world view.
So yes R, like it or not we are entering the ‘older generation’. We have a little way to go before we get comfortable or at least somewhat used to it. But we have to.
As Bob Dylan says, our ‘old road is rapidly aging…please get out of the new one if you can’t lend your hand, for the times they are a-changing’.
Image Source: Youtube- The Trip
We are an author duo who love writing together. We have written a couple of books together, Tete a tete with R&S and Anu and Isha. read more...
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