Haaaave You Met Reality?
A fond farewell to HIMYM
After nine seasons, we have bid an emotional farewell to How I Met Your Mother. I am actually really very surprised how sentimental the finale made me feel. Looking back over nine years, not only have I grown to love the show, but it has grown with me. Unfortunately, I have seen an overwhelming amount of angry, hate-filled, disgusted fans of the show’s series finale. While we all have our own relationship with the show, I felt compelled to share a few thoughts.
In 2005, my older sister was fresh out of college and I was a junior in college when she informed me about this new show that I MUST watch. I was instantly hooked and was able to successfully convert a handful of my friends to fall in love with HIMYM as well. I fell in love instantly with the show because I could relate to the characters in their quest to discover who they were, where their lives would take them, and ultimately the search for love. It was the reason we all fell in love with the show. It all gave us hope and became a time stamp of a place in our lives that none of us really wanted to let go. Not to mention, I can’t tell you how many times I introduced my friends to guys with, ‘Haaaaaave you met, Nikki’ or ‘Haaaaaave you met, Anni’. Seriously, ask them.
Though only five main characters, there was something in each of the characters (and host of cameos) that everyone could relate to. The inside jokes, the outrageous scenarios, the catch phrases, the impossible ironies, the questions, the heartbreaks and triumphs, and the friendships. Through it all, it was Ted’s perseverance on his quest for love that we all held on to so tightly. We all strive to have the same amount of hope that we really CAN get what we want out of life and that the impossible could become reality.
We also learned in nine seasons that life does not always turn out exactly how we planned. We don’t pursue the job path that we thought we would in college, we question who we are, we make mistakes, we fall out of friendship and we fall out of love…and into reality.
While the ending was far from perfect, which would have been too easy, is it not an incredibly accurate depiction of life? I also felt that this last season, in many ways, was a gift from the writers. They never planned to do an entire season of us ‘getting to know’ the mother. Therefore, the backlash from some fans is a little disheartening. I felt that the major bombshells that were revealed in the finale were heavy, however it is how life unfolds for us all. In the end, it was always about the journey. The incredible stories and lessons we learned along the way; that Ted, Robin, Barney, Lily, and Marshall learned along the way. Ted got his perfect ending, WITH a cherry on top.
My sister is now married and just had her first child. And I, I am dating my own Ted Mosby. I have lost friends, made friends, and learned who my real friends are. I can’t help but reflect and be thankful for the lessons and friendships that How I Met Your Mother provided me and countless others for the past decade. Beyond legendary.
“Because sometimes, even if you know how something’s gonna end, that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy the ride.”
