One Tree Hill. One Last Time.

After nearly two months of putting it off, I finally watched the final episode ever of One Tree Hill. I guess I kept putting it off because I wasn't ready for it to be over. I wasn't ready for the stories to end and I wasn't ready to let go. And for a show that started out with strong characters, storylines and music, it did lose its way a few times (especially after losing Lucas and Peyton), was the end of it really going to do its justice to the core of the show?

I remember what One Tree Hill meant to me back in 2003. It aired on channel 10, but I never found too much interest in it. To me, it was that show with the hot Chad Michael Murray, a curly haired blonde and that extremely sexual brunette girl. A show about sex, drugs, teenagers and high school drama. So in short, I wasn't interested.

A few years ago, they began airing random episodes of OTH again on channel 10, this time, on Saturday mornings to fill in the time between Video Hits and the news. That was also the time when I used to actually watch TV, I'd spend most of the day on the couch constantly flipping through channels. So I sat and watched a few minutes here and there of OTH as it played over these Saturdays, and I got the gist of the show pretty quickly. One particular episode that caught me was back in season 6 (ep 18) where Jamie Scott asked his grandfather, Dan Scott, about who killed his great-uncle Keith. And in this, Dan admits to murdering his brother. Shocked and curious, I decided to start from the beginning and watch the entire show. As I watched it, I learned that it wasn't a show purely about teenagers, sex and alcohol. It was about growing up, learning what's important, learning right from wrong and following your heart and your dreams. And yeah, that summary makes it sound lame and cheesy and it probably is. But I'm a lame and cheesy person and I love all things lame and I love all things cheesy.

So I fell in love. I fell in love with the show, the characters, the music, the settings, the places, the journeys and most of all, I fell in love with the words. There are some great moments in OTH. Moments that make you cry, that break your heart, that fill you with joy and hope, and most of these are carried out in the form of words, whether narrated or spoken as part of a dialogue. There is something so beautiful in the way words were written for that show. That a certain combination of letters and words can translate and communicate thoughts, feelings, emotions in such an artful way.

I found that when others talk about what the show meant to them, a lot of people say it was a guide for them. The characters and the viewers, all young and lost, grew up together and found their way together. Unfortunately I didn't have OTH growing up. But it doesn't change the fact that I've learnt so much from it. My view on certain issues changed, my needs and wants changed, my mind matured and it got me through the day when I was at my worst. So much of my life has changed in the last couple of years, my world changed, I changed, but having this constant in my life is a comfort.

I'm glad I discovered OTH. I grew up with disconnected, distant judgmental parents (whom I still love very much) but they never taught me anything about hopes or dreams or what it means to be in love. I wasn't allowed to be lost, I wasn't allowed to be creative and so I learnt all the things I missed from them from this show.

I'm always going to be grateful for this show. It seems so silly that my life would change because of a show, based in a fictional world full of fictional characters, but it did.

As for the final episode, I was worried that they would ruin it. They admittedly did quite bad after Lucas and Peyton left and the end of season 8 was a mess. I think the producers weren't quite sure they would be signed on for another season so they tried to wrap up as much as they could.

But the final episode, I think was pretty good. It would've been amazing to have brought back Lucas and Peyton, but they did add so much to the end that really tied it all together. Like the importance of Dan's death, the ultimate sacrifice he made for his son. Brooke being given all the things she's ever wanted and deserved: love, two generations of a family, and a family home, Nathan and Haley lasting the entire 9 seasons (minus half of season 3), and the idea of a TV show based on OTH. This is probably my favourite of all. OTH originally was a movie script called Ravens, but they decided that the script would be better told as a TV show. So they made the TV show and Lucas wrote a book about it, tried to make a movie and failed and in the end it became a TV show. A bit Inception-like but bringing it full circle. I'm saddened by the end of it all. I'm sad that there won't be more stories, that the lives of these fictional characters have ended. I feel like there's so much more to tell. Will there be more kids for Brooke, Haley, Millie or Quinn? How does Lydia grow up? What kind of predictions does Jamie make? Does Jamie grow up to be a basketball player? And dammit James Lafferty got really hot when he started bulking up. Sexy.

One Tree Hill. One Last Time.