Time to roll the credits

The final credits of a film can have multiple effects on a viewer. Sometimes, the credits may be abrupt, and in this situation, I have found myself yelling at a black screen, “Really? That’s it?!” Other times, the credits may appear at the perfect ending of a story, or they may be a long time coming. In any case, they serve as the exit of the film. In those cases that leave me wondering, “How is that it?” I have to remind myself that it’s just the end of one film, and there are many more that I can immerse myself in, though I may not want to be finished with that particular story. The same is true for life’s chapters.

Whether it be a break up, leaving a job position, moving, or the death of a loved one, the truth that we often times do not want to face is that life does, in fact, go on, and it is our job to go on with it, even if we find it difficult.

I have experienced all three of these credit scenarios happen in my own life in many forms. Graduating as a Warner Robins High School Demon, I feel as though it came at the perfect time, I was ready to go. I remember walking across the stage and receiving my diploma, and not thinking, “finally,” or “no, not yet,” but “okay, next chapter.” I felt it was the correct flow of time in my life, for the credits to roll on my high school experience.

When my grandmother died when I was 20, I felt like it wasn’t time. It seemed as though she’d had so much life left in her the last time I had seen her, that even now, seven years later, I still have to remind myself that she is gone, even though it only seems like I simply haven’t called her in a while, and she would still answer the phone if I did. One of my favorite things was to have her tell me stories from her youth, and I always told her that I would write her memoirs for her. I remember crying to my boyfriend at the time, and asking how I was going to do that now. I didn’t know enough, I just needed more of the story. Really, I just needed more time with her; I wasn’t ready to exit the theatre.

I found my husband when I was 22 years old. I like to joke and say that he fell out of the clear blue sky at the most inconvenient time, when I was least expecting it, when in reality, he was actually late, like he is to everything else. I was dating someone else at the time, and had been for five years. That relationship ended rather inevitably and painfully, but then, the new one with my now husband began. It was only months later, when I had finally come to terms with my mourning of the old, that I realized the end was long overdue for it, and that it should have happened long before. I had let it stretch out, and I can only imagine the audience thinking, “How much more of this do we have to sit through?”

In our life movies, the stories can play out in anyway they wish, but the show must go on. A good actor, producer or director doesn’t throw in the towel just because the end has come to a film. They move on to the next one. That is what we must do, whether we aren’t ready, have been ready for a while, or feel that it is perfect timing. The ends of chapters in our lives shouldn’t be met with apprehension, because a new chapter is going to begin, no matter what we do. Why not make it a good one? So when the credits come up, it’s important to let ’em roll.

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