XOXO, Gossip Girl

When I watched the final movie of the Harry Potter series, I bawled like a baby the moment they showed the Harry, Ron, and Hermione trio standing at the end of the battle of Hogwarts and segued slowly into them as adults sending their children off to the great school. I cried for the same reason I cry at all endings of epic stories, it was an ending. This story had been my story for the last twelve years of my life. From the time I angrily opened the books in third grade, disappointment in my wordy texts while my sister got a baby doll with freckles that actually peed, to staying up on New Year's Eve 2011 until 3 in the morning to watch Deathly Hallows Part 2, Harry had been there to witness it all. This story had been in my life for all of life's major growing pains, and as I watched Daniel Radcliffe transform into a middle aged man sending his children off to school, I realized I was on my way there too. Sure I've still got plenty of years until I reach marriage and children--I still have yet to meet my second half or even have failed experiments, but still. If Harry was married with kids, it meant my childhood was officially at its end.

Anyhow, before I wax on about Harry Potter too much, let me turn this post to another life mile marker: Gossip Girl. As I type this, I am watching the series finale to the CW show, and I'm realizing that I am watching yet another epic in my life come to an end. While I recognize the show lost its magic somewhere early on, the story itself had seen me through my suburban life and introduced me to the ridiculousness of the rich fantasy life I hope I never actually live. I didn't start with this show in 2007 as a sophomore in high school. I started with it back in sixth or seventh grade when someone slipped me the book, opened to the chapter about how many calories sex actually burns. I read through this series up until the show came out, and I grew with these characters as much as I grew with Hermione. Blair had always been my favorite, in the show and out. I remember Chuck with a snow monkey and seeming to be gay, Jenny as being short, brunette, and busty, and, of course, Vanessa with a shaved head and a tummy paunch. Oh, and if critics initially thought the show was inappropriate and racy, they would be floored by the content of the books. Through them, I experienced sex, drugs, and parties and got answers to questions you don't think to ask in public. I love what they did with some parts of the show, even if the utter extravagance of the plot lines got to be too much (a 19-year-old in charge of a company, huh?). Chuck and Blair never existed in the books, Blair and Nate were the endgame and focus... Actually the triangle of Blair, Serena, and Nate were always endgame.

I'll never forget freaking out with excitement over this ad!

Watching Blair and Chuck marry surrounded by family, only to be followed by Serena and Dan getting married at the very end made me realize another ending was coming. After all, Dan Humphrey is the TV Gossip Girl, and as they say in the show, this generation is over and it was time to become grown-ups. So here's to the show that brought me more of New York City, an insight to fashion, and an enjoyment of the crazy games girls play. It's been a wild ride.