The end

What is the meaning of the word “end”?

It is defined as “the final part of something, especially a period of time, an activity, or a story.”

This one syllable word can have multiple meanings. It could be the climax of a movie, the finish line of a race, a finale of a play… basically; it’s a final part of something.

We all know that there is an end to everything that is and everything that ever was. Wars, revolutions, they all ended and brought a huge change to the world. The End brings change, be it huge or tiny.

We’ve all had different phases in life. The kindergarten phase (which hardly anyone remembers), then primary school, secondary, junior college and finally here. Do you remember what you felt at the end of each phase? Was it a feeling of happiness and relief mixed with a little bit of excitement of a new beginning? Or was it a feeling of sorrow (since you didn’t want it to end)? It all depends on the times you had. The end of these major phases in our lives may have a positive or negative impact or both on us.

There are also times and moments which we want to last forever. We just don’t want them to end. There are always times in our lives when we fall in love with a particular moment and we wish we could freeze it in a frame and have it stay like that forever, that we could replay that day and keep reliving it over and over. But unfortunately, we can’t. Those times, those blissful moments have to end, too. They end and transform into memories.

Everything good and everything bad has an inevitable end. That doesn’t mean we should not start anything new just because we’re afraid of the end of it. We’re supposed to encourage new beginnings, make new friends, meet new people and inscribe new memories in their hearts as well as ours. We can’t do anything about the end of anything. It will come.

Everybody leaves when they have to. Everything has an end. Everything good and everything bad has an inevitable end. That doesn’t mean we should not start anything new just because we’re afraid of the end of it. We’re supposed to encourage new beginnings, make new friends, meet new people and inscribe new memories in their hearts as well as ours. We can’t do anything about the end of anything. It will come. So we might as well accept the fact and enjoy the time that we have.

It’s just like when we’re born, everyone around us is so happy. And when we die, or when anyone dies, people around us mourn the death. But we still live our lives knowing the fact that we’re going to die someday, don’t we?

Almost all fairy tales end with a “happily ever after”. Do you believe in “happily ever after”? What I believe is that the phrase “happily ever after” doesn’t mean that they lived happily forever. It means that in that particular moment, they were happy and that moment would always be special to them because that moment was the end of a beautiful story and the start of another. And there might be another “happily ever after” in their next story, too.

So don’t say that the end of a beautiful moment makes you sad. Instead say: “This was one of my numerous happily-ever-afters that I will treasure forever.”

I would like to end with one of my favourite quotes — “Everything ends. And it’s always sad. But everything begins again too, and that’s always happy. So be happy.”

Remember the happiness of the beginnings, the thrill of the journey and discard the sadness of the end.