 The End
Some say that it's the ending that makes a story good or bad. Could that be true? Are endings that significant? I can't deny the impact "The End" sign has. How can I? It's just amazing how many different emotions it can trigger in a person, that is, of course if they come to realize that it's over.
Some people, including myself, can't come to accept that basic fact. But one way or another, reality will hit you. As the credits appear on the screen and the theater becomes deserted, you realize that you are sitting there alone. At some point you are forced to understand that it's over.
"Voila, the end, the show is over" yells the usher right into your face, but you simply don't want to understand.
Then security comes and kicks you out even though you didn't get the ending you were waiting for. That's exactly what bothers people most. You rarely get the ending you are hoping for, thus you just can't believe it's over. It's annoying. It's not that you are necessarily looking for a happy ending. Sure, everyone loves happy endings, but you don't get them that often in real life unless you are living in your own Disney World. What you mostly get is the unexpected, open ending and that's why endings suck in the real world. You my friend, are in an age where everything seems possible, where you hate the unknown just like your ancestors have, where you have developed a sickening fear of it. Which is not new to you, I'm sure.
So having all these umm...heartfelt feelings toward endings, is it really fair to judge something you have lived through by the way it ends? I'd say no. There are hundreds of different scenes worth remembering. Forgetting them would be a loss, but giving an awful verdict to all those scenes and judging by the very last would be nothing but a crime. Yes, you might be scared out of your mind, yes, you might not want it to end, yes, you might still have unfinished business but just accept that it's over. There is one thing that you should focus on from this point on, and that's what really matters, which is that every end is a new beginning.
Now as for beginnings, they can be just as scary, because unless you know a very good fortune teller, it's highly unlikely for you to know how things will end. It's sort of a vicious cycle really: it ends, it begins and it ends again. Is this what they call life? Is this supposed to tell us that we should only live in the moment, carpe diem? Perhaps.
So how did I come to ramble on about something like this? I feel like Derrida right now. Well, I was thinking, Here we are. The end of yet another semester, the very last one for some, at least as an undergraduate... I know that even during this year most of you have the best of memories. Many more are sure to come. I don't want to sound like a grandma here, even though it's said that I have the soul of an 80-year-old, but for those of you who have a couple of years more to go as a college student just try to enjoy each and every moment. For those who are graduating like me, we still have many other things to tend to. And for those of you who took the time to read my very last article, I have a few parting words: We live in the present, we dream of the future and we cherish the past. That pretty much seems to be all we need to know.
The End
By Eda Erdem (TRIN/IV)
a_erdem@ug.bilkent.edu.tr
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