Just a Television Show?

Throughout life, there are so many things that inspire us. Whether that be obvious things like a person or a place or even simpler things like a book, a painting, or movie. I try to find inspiration in each day. I look for it in a news story about a young girl who dedicated her birthday to a charity or a sunset. I look for it in my friends and family or in the latest book I'm reading. I look for it in a song. Regardless of the type of media, inspiration in everywhere.
Today is the last filiming day ever of my favorite television show, One Tree Hill. And the reason I associate this with inspiration is because this show inspired me in so many ways. yes, it has been criticized TREMENDOUSLY. It's not the most outstanding television show and it can be unrealistic.
But to me, who cares if a storyline was too soap opera-ish. Who cares if you completely hate this show? For me, and the people who have watched OTH, we all know it's just a tv show (except for those crazy fan girls with no lives). We know the characters are fictional but for an hour every week, we felt what they did. That is the beauty of good writing and film.
Mark Schwan may not have had the classiest plot lines but he created characters people all over the world relate to in some way with every episode; characters we fell in love with. And if you don't like OTH than this still applies to whatever your favorite tv show is.
I have followed OTH from Day 1. And when my life was at it's toughest, I could lose myself in an episode and watch these fictional characters struggle in their own lives and come out strong and it always pushed me to do the same.
Peyton was and always will be my favorite character not because I was adopted and both my biological mother and adopted mother died, and not because I have experience with psychos or starting my own record label. But because when I was 15, 16, 17, 18 years old, I knew what dark times and losing your faith felt like. And like Peyton, I found my faith in music. In high school, I always shut people out and Peyton's character taught me that you just gotta let someone in sometimes.
Same with Lucas and his love of literature. Literature is my life and whenever that voiceover came on with a new quote, it meant something to me.
OTH wasn't just teenage drama. It showed that even when you lost your way, you could find it again in your friends, in music, in love, in art, and in family.
So when you say, "but OTH is just a tv show," to me, it was more than that. It got me through so much heartache and times of just being lost. And that part of my life is ending. I owe a lot to Schwan's writing and the actors' performances. I knew it was fictional and I knew that a lot of the stuff that happened on that show would NEVER happen in real life but that doesn't mean it didn't inspire me any less than a book or painting or a news story.
And just like anything that inspires me, I am eternally grateful for this show and the lessons it brought to my life.

#GoodnightTreeHill