Something to ponder as the final episodes of “Friends” make their way onto NBC: Would the show have lasted as long as it did without the Ross-and-Rachel love story?

Hindsight’s easy, but “probably not” seems like a safe answer. Yet that romance, which has run through “Friends” for all of its 10 seasons, only happened because of a “lucky accident,” co-creator Marta Kauffman says.

It was only four years ago when we were pulling up to our respective residence halls. Some of us looked up with joy and excitement at the buildings that stood towering above us.

Monica Lane, a seasoned traveler from Newport Richey, Florida, waits at John F. Kennedy Airport as a security officer hand inspects the contents of her suitcase. A metal pitcher aroused suspicion because it looked like a grenade on the x-ray machine. Packing for air travel has changed completely since September 11, 2001.

I have to admit, I got a little excited when my eye caught glimpse of the “All the salad, breadsticks and pasta you can eat” sign hanging outside Mama Leone’s on the rotary in Newport, Rhode Island.

With May approaching and graduation just over the horizon, it is time for the annual reminder that four years at Salve Regina go by pretty fast, and decisions have to be made. The question is brought up, and an answer must be given: where does one go after Salve? Once commencement has, in fact, commenced, do students have to leave?

Not necessarily, if they plan on going to graduate school.