This Is the End.
When I sat down with friends and brought this project up, I was plesantly surprised by the brainstorming that transpired among them. I listed off a few of the endings I planned on including in my project, and they immediately began spouting off new ideas faster than I could write them down. The reacted excitedly to each other's ideas, affirming that they, too, had similar experiences with certain endings.
One objective I envisioned for this project was to inspire readers to reflect on endings in their own lives. Engaging in this reflection with a group of friends led to the following list. The progression of this list demonstrates how thinking of certain events leads to a more complex awareness of this concept, as well as how it manifests itself in all of our lives.
What's your ending? Send yours to me in the Contact box and I'll add it to the list.
Special thanks to Clay Behrman, Mahraan Qadir, Amit Desphande, Greg Voutsos, Jaime Cameron, and Susan Blake for their participation in generating this list.
Endings
The end of summer
The end of thanksgiving dinner
The end of dessert
The end of a workout
The end of a row of oreos
The end of a bad habit
Quick endings
Last payment on a loan
When your parents stop paying for you
Selling your childhood house
The end of a hangover
The end of a book or movie series
The end of a Netflix series
The end of innocence
The end of a prank
Undertakers who quit their jobs
People who fire people and then get fired
Getting fired from a job
The last day of work before retirement
The end of a dream
The end of this blog
The end of generations
The end of yoga teacher training
The end of recruiting
The end of application essays
The end of a new album
The end of your desktop computer that you played childhood games on
The end of an exam that you either crushed/failed
The end of a long summer day
The end of an awkward date
The end of a goal - you either reach it or fail
The moment your childhood dream ends
When you throw a Christmas tree out after NYE
Cleaning up after a party
The end of a favorite pair of shoes
The end of a summer day when you’re sunburnt
The end of football season
The end of freshman year of college
The last lunch a mom makes for a child going to school
Dropping a kid off at college
The end of certain patterns of thought
The end of certain perceptions of self
The end of trying to please your parents
The end of pretending you’re someone you’re not
The end of living for someone else’s expectations
The end of being uncomfortable being naked
The time you get your first period
The end of a wedding
Throwing out easter eggs that go bad
Deleting your facebook/twitter
The end of a vacation
The end of looking up to someone
The end of a long car ride
The end of sexism
The end of something you want to end in the future
The end of educational inequality
The end of physical things (e.g., a tube of toothpaste, balloon, etc.)
The end of doubts about something
The end of skepticism
The end of a pregnancy or pregnancy scare
The end of breastfeeding
The end of certain limitations
The end of fear
Reincarnations
What happened to all the pay phones ( or record players or other antiquated piece of technology)?
Things that end up in a dump
What's your ending?