They say you never know how much something means until it ends,
I never knew how much of an impact One Tree Hill had on my life until I watched the series finale tonight.

You aren’t supposed to live your live vicariously or through a tv show,
but I don’t think that is what it is about or why people connect with a show for so many years.
It isn’t about an unhealthy connection to a celebrity,
or wishing your life looked like theirs.
Mark Schwahn did a phenomenal job of creating characters that you can see yourself in,
and allow you to believe that tomorrow could be brighter.

Tonight reminded me of the many times the show did that for me,
it has been around for me between the ages of 14 and 22.
Talk about fitting.
The amount of change, indecision, and figuring out who you are happens in overload during those years.
Tonight’s recap and finale brought back the beginning ideas of what writing and creating something special can do.
One Tree Hill has had a loyal audience for almost a decade because of its acknowledgement of what it was doing.
The cast and crew connected with each other and the fans to produce material that meant something,
Yes, in my opinion, the post season six era wasn’t the best.
I’ve still seen every episode since.

I guess what I want to say is,
Thank you.
Good material of any kind allows you to find new things in yourself,
One Tree Hill started my production interests in television and music almost a decade ago.
It lasted longer than the others of its kind because it connected the audience on more than one level.
Congratulations to everyone involved on creating something that means so much to a core part of peoples’ lives and memories.
“It was special because it was where everything happened for the first time,”
That is what it meant then and still means now.
Thank you for pushing me to be a dreamer back then and believing in myself,
and seeing what is special about art in television.
It began the inspiration for what I want to do with the rest of my life,
I can only hope to be apart of something that can do the same for another generation.

It has finally happened. I was lying awake at 5 AM, lets be honest, hungover - and it finally came to me.
I have been stressing for upwards of a year that I was never going to have a story to tell.
Today begins my first experience legitimately writing and creating a piece of work and I could not be happier.
The constant turning of the wheels in my head since the seed was planted is a ride that I never want to end.
The script and characters are coming together as I begin putting together the drawing board for the scene to scene progression.
I just want to say thank you to all of you who have always been around pushing me forward and supporting my goals whether or not I have ever given you a reason to.
This is a very exciting time and I needed it to happen more than any of you could know with school coming to an end and my adventure to New York getting closer and closer.
I desperately needed something to happen to give myself some faith in myself.

Left or Right? North or South? East or West?
You know better than I do.

Two months in and senior year already has two staple features,
laughter and fear.
With 8 months until I come face to face with the real world, and all of her mayhem,
I am trying to make all the proper decisions to turn the fear to excitement.
Two things stand in my way, experience, or lack there of, and a crossroads of which career path to pursue.

I have two major interests, both offsets of my dream job. Writing with the talent of Amy Poehler or Tina Fey, obviously.
How do you choose? How do you know what moves to play and which ones to save? Oh the pressure of having this one life and wanting to make the right choices to have the best possible life and least likely for regret.
New Orleans? New York? LA? A big soccer city? TV/Film production or sports writing/broadcasting? So many avenues and choices, but not a lot of experience or connections. Do you go where you have the connection because you probably have it for a reason?

So much to figure out and so little time. Senior year sneaks up, as you pray for it to come, and then you beg for more time.
More time for added knowledge and insight to nudge you in the “right” direction. I can only hope that the wheels are turning as they are meant to and that the cards fall somewhere pleasant.

I must say, even with the stresses of figuring out the future AND making it across the stage to get your diploma, it has been one hell of a ride. Thank God I have come full circle and am having the most stressful but most rewarding year of college. I have amazing friends and spend more time laughing than you could ask for. I will miss them as we veer down different paths, but I am so thankful to have gotten to learn so much about friendship from them and the ones no longer around. The people and relationships to come is one thing that already fills me with excitement. That is what life is about, no?

allthiswandering:

go tennessee!

neyland stadium, knoxville

awesomepeoplehangingouttogether:

Meryl Streep & Stanley Tucci

thefamilyrecords:

We rarely ever talk politics on our Family blog, but this weekend has been a pretty historic one with our home state of New York voting in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage. Lets just say it’s long overdue, in our humble opinion. Here is how the conversation probably should’ve gone a long time…

I have had the inability to write for a very long time,
it was even hard to put that together.
Something’s gotta give,
and not other people’s words.

awesomepeoplehangingouttogether:

Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Rashida Jones and Kelly Ripa

Insert panic. What do you do? How do you maneuver?

I don’t know where to look or how to feel. If I don’t get it out I am going to implode.

Supreme timing. During my week trapped in Heathrow Airport, I was informed that the person I had entrusted on my bank account took a large sum without consulting me. Terrible timing then but I pulled through.

In the aftermath of that, summer credits and an unpaid full-time internship it has hit the point of being the difference of survival.

I have no idea how to navigate life at this point. How do you get money back that isn’t there? And how does the relationship not begin to accelerate downwards?

I cannot believe this is a situation. An impossible one.

(Source: andrewgaluppi, via jessiebaylin)