Chapter1- So young and full of running
(The message is finished. Ross jumps over to the answering machine.)
Ross: No! No! Oh my God. Did she get off the plane? Did she get off the plane?
Rachel: I got off the plane.
Ross: You got off the plane.
RACHEL POV
Some people say that you only have one chance in life to be the best you can be. I didn't know this belief at the time. Maybe it was the universe that put in my head that day. The day I decided I didn't want to be Mrs. Potato Head for the rest of my life. What did I want to be? I didn't know, I just knew that I didn't want to have my life shaped by my family. I was going to build what I wanted to build.
In the beginning it was pretty difficult. I didn't know anything about the "real world". Being rejected in several job interviews until I finally got one where I would serve coffees (that were not even for me!) while I watched my old friends establish themselves in life wasn't quite what I imagined when I decided to run away from my marriage. But what I ended up realizing is that I was on the right track because, as phoebe once said, I had magic beans. In fact, five magic beans:
Phoebe: The one and only. Eccentric? A little. Wrong? Almost never.
Chandler: A little annoying at the beginning but he is a nice guy. To be honest, I was inspired a lot by him during this 10 years because, just like me, he didn't know what he wanted to be in life and we ended up discovering together and also maturing in this time.
Monica: She was the one who made me able to take the first steps. Without her I don't know if I would've been capable of dealing with the first difficulties without running back to my mom's home.
Joey: Just a sweetheart, loving and protective. We dated for a week (I swear he didn't sleep with any other girl at that time!) but intimately we both knew it wouldn't work. What existed between us wasn't love, I still don't know how it all ended up happening, I think maybe it was just a very strong affection one another. My heart, deep down, belonged to another bean.
Ross: Ugh, Ross. Maybe my "one chance in life to be the best you can be" has had some ramifications.
Ok, I confess: at first glance we don't have much in common. I am not the biggest fan of science, dinosaurs and all these things that happened millions of years ago, just as he isn't the biggest admirer of fashion.
I don't know what brought us together, it wasn't just the crush he had on me during school. What exists between us has always been profound. We broke up when he slept with the copy girl and then came up with the excuse that we were on a break (calm down, Rachel. It's over now). But… Could it be that at some point after that we were really separated? I mean, why didn't any of our other relationships work? Mona, Gavin, the horny bitch from the babies store… It is our destiny to be together? But if so, why do we end up going wrong every time we get closer?
I don't know. Maybe we needed the possibility of real distance and it came with the job offer in Paris. I don't feel anything for Ross but love. He is the love of my life and Emma's birth was proof of that.
When I ran away from Barry I was trying to be really happy. When I got off the plane, I was doing the same.