So this is my last day in New York. I am driving home to Vermont with Simone to see my children and live a slightly more normalized version of life for a while. This is, of course, an excellent opportunity to reflect back on my time here. What have I learned? What have I accomplished? How much TV did I watch?
One thing I have been thinking about as I wrap up my time here, is my friends. Every time I do a show I make a new set of friends, but invariably there is someone that you do not like, wherever you go in life. I wouldn’t say I have any real enemies (if you believe that you are in fact my enemy, please comment below to let me know), but I do have people that rub me the wrong way and with whom I construct an adversarial relationship. These are different, naturally, from my ARCH-enemies, who I truly hate and will eventually destroy. No, these bothersome people are my frenemies.
I am friendly enough to my frenemies (hence the “fr” at the beginning), but I do devote time and energy to thinking about how annoying they are, or how they are preventing me from doing something I want to do. What I realized on this show, however, was that it’s really not necessary. After my first week of rehearsals, I made a bold move for me. I decided to really befriend my frenemy. I decided to be really nice to them, to have discussions with them, and to not think about how much they bothered me. And do you know what? It worked! By week two, we were on very good terms, and I didn’t find them nearly as annoying. Are they my favorite person in the world? No. Do I hang out with them outside of rehearsal? Never have. But boy, it sure made these last eight weeks a heck of a lot more pleasant.
I’ve learned a lot of things over the past two months. I’ve learned not to argue with crazy people on the subway, but it’s a lot of fun to watch when somebody else does. I’ve learned that everything at Big Nick’s is delicious, no matter what you order. I’ve learned that beds > couches > floors. I’ve learned that food trucks are seasonal, so if you want to seek out 25 specific ones, you should not expect to find the last three of them in November. But maybe the most important thing I will take away from all of this, is that life is better with no enemies in it. And since you can’t kill them, just kind of like them instead.