Too Real... Too Close...

Last night I finished the final season of How I Met Your Mother and while it seems ridiculous to dedicate an entire post to the season finale of a television show, it really had a rather dramatic impact on me. Let me explain. Now, if you don't watch the show or have never heard of the show, I'm going to try and paint a picture for you. If you do watch the show and haven't gotten around to watching the finale season yet, I'm going to do my best not to spoil it for you. But if you can't stand any spoilers, stop reading right now. 

So the whole series is about this guy named Ted who is telling his children the story of how he met their mother. This story that he tells takes the place over about 9 seasons worth of adventures and stories within stories, getting close to the actual moment of how Ted met his children's mother. The final season mostly takes the place over the course of one day until the last three episodes that cover several years. Without going into too many details and giving away too many spoilers, the close group of friends that the audience had grown to know and love begins to grow apart. You see, they are all adults who spent many of their young 20's in a bar chatting about life and having crazy fun adventures.  As is the case with many friends who spend much of their 20's going on adventures and goofing around, life happens and opportunities arise and they grow apart. Life pulls them in a million different directions and despite their best effort to "be there for the big stuff," it just doesn't happen. 

Damn. That hurt. 

Watching that happen to a group of people who already reminded me so much of my extremely close friends group back in SoCal and knowing that the exact same thing has happened to us literally cut my legs out from under me. I lost it. I just cried. And cried. And cried. I could not stop crying. I basically cried myself to sleep. It was just too real. It cut too close to home. How does that happen? How could something so fictional be so real? I know it's crazy, but it hurt. It made me miss those moments. Those times drinking and eating with friends. Those times playing ridiculous games and laughing until we cried. Those innaoropriate jokes that came out of the "family game" or someone always saying the word in catchphrase or reading Cognac exactly how it looks rather than how it is actually pronounced. Those last minute adventures to Disneyland on Election Day to see Ingrid Michaelson. Ditching the second day of stats to go watch the opening night of Monday night football at a bar with a friend. Taking an entire summer off to live and work with 20 strangers who by the end of 6 weeks you are ugly crying while you say goodbye to. 

Does all of that seriously go away when you hit a certain age? Do the people you loved and cared about and were close enough you think of them as family seriously leave your life fovever?

I know everyone thinks your high school friends will be with you forever. I learned really quickly that that is most definitely not the case. Then others say the friends you meet in college will be your lifelong friends; the people you have in your wedding. Well I have been to a few weddings, have yet to be in one and have no plans to be in one anytime in the near future.  I turned 27 the other day and I have to say it's been pretty depressing. 

Don't get me wrong, I am beyond grateful for the opportunities I have been given and the path God has put before me as well as the opportunities that God has given my close friends. But there comes a time when you look back and just are overwhelmed with what you have lost along the way. I'm not depressed. I promise. I'm just being honest. I look forward to the future and am beyond blessed by what I have and wouldn't trade it. But part of me, a little part wonders if it all has to end. Where and when does the story end? How I Met Your Mother ended with a new beginning. A story yet to be told. When does my new story begin? And who is gonna tell my kids about how he met their mother? 

[DISCLIAMER: for parents who could read way too much into this... I am fine. Seriously. These are only thoughts that go through my head when I watch television shows on Netflix late at night. Love you and miss you!]