After nine wonderful seasons of television that made us laugh, cry, and want to wring Michael Scott's neck, it is wonderful to go back and soak up all the lessons to be learned from NBC's hit show, The Office. Here are a few life lessons that can be taken from it.
1. Not Everybody Has To Like You
If you have seen the show, you know that Michael Scott will do anything and everything to win the favor of the masses. Whether it be promising a group of elementary kids that he'd pay their tuition, embarrassing himself at an employee's wedding, or forcing himself on a homosexual employee, Michael is always trying to win the approval of others. It is his fatal flaw. I've learned that it is impossible to gain everybody's favor of you. And you know what? You don't need it. The truth is that while we should do our best to get along with everyone we can't let someone's opinion of us control our every thought and action. Meanwhile, do your best to treat everyone with respect. Everyone except Toby.
2. You Can Find Joy In Joyless Situations
Life in an office park in a midwestern town is depicted pretty accurately in the show. There are a lot of mundane situations that require monotonous tasks. However, one of the show's more lovable characters, Jim Halpert, shows us how to find the hilarity in all of it. Whether it be pranking Dwight, falling in love with Pam, or reacting to an absurd thing another character has said, Jim always finds a way to laugh at the ridiculousness of it all. Finding little things that can keep us going in the hard times and in the dull moments can enrich our lives. Let's try to take a page out of Jim's book and broaden our sense of humor.
3. It Is Better To Be A Loyal Friend Than A Perfect Friend
One of my favorite aspects of the show is Dwight's undying loyalty to Michael. As much as Dwight appears to be pining for Michael's love and attention in the show, Michael is just as loyal to Dwight. The two aren't always good to each other. Dwight betrays Michael and tries to steal his job. Michael can't stand Dwight's ferocity at times, and makes jokes about him at his expense. In fact they even have had a physical altercation (one of the funniest episodes in the series). Despite some of the bad things, the loyalty is never in question. Even down to the final episode. I've found that in life, we cannot expect our friends to be perfect. We are human beings who fail from time to time. We can however, be loyal to each other and love each other through those little quirks that annoy us every now and then.
4. Some People Are Different And That's Okay
A relationship that was a little unknown throughout the show until the final season was the relationship between Oscar and Angela. On paper (pun), they could not be more opposite, and if they weren't two feet away from each other every day for ten years, they may have never been friends. While at first Oscar, the homosexual Mexican Democrat, and Angela, the uptight conservative Republican, do not get along and butt heads quite often over their differences. They become close friends and accept each other's differences by the finale of the show. It is important to accept each other. We come across all kinds of people in our lives, and although we may not agree on every issue, we can all agree that people deserve to be shown respect, and sometimes that can lead to unexpected friendships.
5. Relationships Have Ups And Downs But They Are Worth The Fight
I don't know if the writers of the show intended for this, but by the end of the show all of our favorite characters are either married off or dating another character. Jim and Pam, Dwight and Angela, Michael and Holly, and last but not least, Ryan and Kelly. While Jim and Pam are celebrated the most as the perfect couple of the show (deservedly so), there are other couples in the show that are just as intriguing. Dwight and Angela for example, as unorthodox as they may seem, show how some relationships have to stand the test of timing. All of the faithful Office viewers were heartbroken when Jim decided to follow his career instead of listening to the concerns of Pam, and we definitely all remember that tragic fight they had over the phone that left us all (maybe just me) weeping in desperation. But our favorite couple persevered through their struggles, and we got to see a most satisfying ending to television's most loved couple of all time. There is something to be learned from this on-screen duo. The Office depicts their relationship and their marriage more truthfully than anything I have ever seen on the small or big screen. It is a relationship that has its obstacles, its high highs, and its low lows. If you are in a relationship that meets an obstacle, I'd encourage you to take a note from Jim and Pam, and stick together through it. You might just become better people together.
