My Life As a Sitcom

I had an interesting realization this week. Well, more like last week. They are all starting to blur together...

But have you ever had that startling moment where you are laying on your couch in your casual Sunday sweats, eating potato chips on your sandwich and watching a Friends marathon and all of a sudden realized..."Holy crap, my life is NOT a sitcom"?

If you answered no to the above question, just stop reading now and go back to your spot at Central Perk with Chandler, Joey, Monica and the gang. There's not much more here for you.

And for those that answered "Yes" to the above question...what a BUZZ KILL is that? Am I right? Now obviously I don't picture myself living in New York with a nuclear group of my 5 closest friends, but similar to my beef with the false promises that Rom-Com's have breeded for the average single girl for the last 27+ years of my life, I have found in sitcoms.

As an avid Friends fanatic, I grew up on a show that promised me a super close group of friends that all live on the same block and have fun adventures and give me something to aspire to "when I get to be their age". And then one day, when you are laying on the couch eating potato chips you are smacked in the face with the realization that "Holy crap, my life is NOT a sitcom." It's no longer about when I get to be their age, this is how things will be, but now it's "I'm at their age, and this is what I haven't done". Sure, I could try to be a little more like my Friends counterparts and walk across the hall to my neighbors apartment in my pajama pants and take milk out of their fridge for my bowl of Special K that I brought in my own quirky themed bowl, but I'm not sure that this is how I want to awkwardly introduce myself to the couple across the hall or finally have my first arrest on record. Maybe I should take a page out of Monica's book and atleast bake them a bundt cake or something first.

We spend so many years waiting to live a life that we envisioned, that it can be a jarring discovery to realize that you are past the point of waiting for it to start and are in fact already living it - even if it isn't the hand that you expected to be dealt. And when you stop to look around at every one else around you growing and progressing...getting married, having kids, finishing doctorates, getting promoted, buying houses...all these benchmarks of "growing up" can seem so overwhelming. It can be challenging not to measure your personal accomplishments against those of your peers, especially in a society that so heavily promotes being able to "do it all". How can I "do it all" if I'm not really doing any of it?

The theme for 2012 was not to worry about any of this. A year without a plan, just go with the flow. And I've been very successful at it. But we are running out of time in 2012 and need to start thinking in 2013 terms. Lucky 13...maybe that's next year's theme. The year of George! Er...The year of Cindy Lou! Guess I better go back and familiarize myself with the Resolution Rules before I get too set on the next one.

So, as I ponder these things for myself and start to accept the fact that I am living in the present and can't keep waiting for the future to happen, I challenge all of you to also consider what it is that you want to be in your present that you have been seeing in your future. Or don't. Whatever you're feeling really.

All things said, I do still hope that the Friends do a reunion show someday. I'll totally watch it. The One Where They All File for Social Security.