Wise words from "Friends"

by Brittany Geragotelis

If you know me, you know that I watch a lot of TV. Seriously, a LOT of TV. Sometimes people are shocked that I manage to find time to write books, blog, read books and have a social life while watching as much television as I do. Shows have the power to impact my mood. They have the power to inspire, the power to give us strength. They have the power to teach us lessons about life.

So, given my penchant for television watching, it's not surprising that I've learned a lot from TV shows over the years. Here are a few of my favorites:

photo credit: Warner/Friends

1. "Friends": There's no such thing as an unselfish good deed. Joey said this to Phoebe and she set off on a mission to find an unselfish good deed. And what did she find? It doesn't exist. Truth is, in the end if no one even knows that you've done something good for someone/something else, you still feel good about doing it, right? That's selfish. At least it's selfish for all the right reasons.

photo credit: The CW/BTVS

2. "Buffy the Vampire Slayer": Leave a positive impact on the world. Sure, she kills vampires and demons and witches (Oh my!), but the idea that here's this girl who helps to save the world on a daily basis is a very attractive thought to me. I think that everyone wants to know they're on this world for a reason and that when their time is up, the world's a better place because they lived. Every day I ask myself, am I doing something that could impact the world around me in a positive way. If I'm not, I know it's time to do something about that.

photo credit: The CW/Veronica Mars

3. "Veronica Mars": Take the obstacles in your life and turn them into positives. Veronica was roofied and raped at a party, her BFF was murdered and all her friends turned against her...so, what does she do? Well, she doesn't shut down or turn to mind-altering substances to help her forget it all. She gets sassy, starts working with her father at his private investigation company and makes it her mission to find out the truth about everything that turned her life upside down. Because of this, she ends up helping countless people around her, finds her friend's killer and makes lifelong friends. I find strength in characters like Veronica who don't stay down when life tosses them to the ground.

photo credit: Showtime/Dexter

4. "Dexter": Nobody's who they seem to be. On the outside, Dexter seems like a caring brother, husband, father, friend...but on the inside, he craves violence and murder, which he lets loose on criminals that the system has failed to send to jail. Just because a person you've just met seems nice and normal and you swear they'd never hurt a fly, doesn't make it so. Er on the side of paranoid when it comes to letting your guard down too soon around strangers. Better to take your time getting to know someone than ending up the part of your own E! Hollywood Story.

photo credit: FOX/Glee

5. "Glee": Everybody feels like a geek sometimes. Whether you're the pretty girl or the captain of the dork brigade it's inevitable that you're going to have at least one sucky day. A day when you're picked on, feel less than fabulous, and like life will never go your way. Some of us have more than one of these days (mine was all of high school). But the truth is, everyone's too busy just trying to survive to pay attention to your misery. In the meantime, you have to find something that makes you feel like a winner, like you belong, like you're contributing to something bigger than just how popular you are to other people.

photo credit: FOX/House

6. "House": It's never Lupus. Except for when it is. There are millions of health problems you could have right now...brain tumor, heart murmur, Huntington's Disease, lead poisoning. These are just a handful of what could fit whatever symptoms you have right this second. And there are a million different ways we could die. But if you're lucky enough to have a nasty, angry, bitter, genius doctor like House, someone just might figure out what it is before you kick the bucket.

photo credit: Oxygen/
Tori & Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood

7. "Tori & Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood": Relationships take work—but that doesn't mean they're doomed. Tori Spelling and Dean McDermott fell in love with each other (while they were both still married to other people) and vowed never to change the way they were together. Four years and two kids later, the SO IN LOVE duo hit a rough patch and spent a few rocky months trying to get back to the way they'd been at the beginning of their relationship. But instead of shutting down completely, the couple spent time talking it out and figured out what they needed to work on as individuals, to make the relationship better. The work on their relationship paid off, because they just renewed their vows and seem to be back on track!

What have you learned from your favorite shows? Leave your comments and wisdom above!

5x5,

B.