Have I Come to the End?

by Terri Wagner

One of my favorite commercials on TV was the guy who got the message "you have reached the end of the Internet." He stands there awed! Sometimes I think we all reach a point where we realize it really is the end. I don't mean the end of life or love or anything quite that dramatic...we just reach an end.

Probably my first "end" was turning 10. After all, you are now double digits and with rare exceptions probably will not reach triple digits. That was a big moment to me. Suddenly I was older. It was the end of single digit birthdays.

The next end was 13. Now I am a teenager. That had interesting possibilities. By the end of teenagehood, I will have gotten a driver's liscense, graduated high school, be in college, may be married, wow, that's a lot before I hit 20.

The next big end for me was 40. Suprisingly, 30 was not such a big deal for me. But 40 was old. I mean really old. Now that I am in my 50s, I am not sure why that was a big deal either. I only know I would rather go back to 20, ha.

The end of job. When I got laid off two years ago I never dreamed I would still be looking two years later. I had no idea that things would be so hard and so discouraging. I have really had to work to overcome feelings of hostility toward a former boss, feelings of regret since it was my dream job, feelings of discouragement as it looks like this job search will never ever really end.

The end of a writing project. Sometimes we are so focused on getting the writing and editing and publishing done, we forget there is an end. A moment where you know inside stick a fork in it, trust me it is done!

So when you reach the end of something, take a moment like the man in the commercial to stand amazed that the end has come.