It has been one hell of a ride, quite literally, if you are all caught up on "The Vampire Diaries" and have been watching this last season. But as they say, all good things must come to an end, and so it has come time to say goodbye to ‘The Vampire Diaries’ after eight seasons. In some ways it is hard to believe that is has been eight seasons–it seems like we were just introduced to these characters that we have grown to love and it cannot be possible that so much time has passed. In other ways, you remember all of the places that the show has gone, all of the crazy storylines and journeys that have been explored, and you realize that it actually has been that long.

"The Vampire Diaries" has been on television since September 2009. It is literally something that I watched through all four years of high school and all four years of college. In the beginning, these characters were high school students just like I was, and then they, sort of, went on to college just like I did. Even though they lived in a world of vampires, werewolves, half-breeds, doppelgänger’s, witches, covens, sirens, the devil, and everything in between, they were still experiencing many of the same things I was, just in an extraordinary ways.

At the heart of all the drama and storylines and adventures, this show was about a group of friends growing up and finding their purpose while staying true to themselves and their friendships. I grew up right alongside these characters and was able to take solace in their fictional extraordinary problems because they made my own problems seem so insignificant. As they were finding their purpose, I was finding mine in deciding what I want to do with my life.

Beyond what you find at the heart of the show there is everything else, those storylines, adventurous and that drama. This is what has kept the show running for eight seasons. As one would expect with any show that goes on that long, there were some dry spells but overall the writers and actors made you want to keep coming back for more. Every season we were introduced to a new dilemma that the group of friends had to face, often with one of them getting entangled in the dilemma and being drawn to the dark side only to be saved and shown the light by the friends.

Then there is the brotherly aspect of the show. In the beginning few seasons, much of the plot was focused on the love triangle between two brothers and a girl. Those brothers, Damon and Stefan Salvatore, played by Ian Somerhalder and Paul Wesley respectively, and their relationship is another center point that the show largely focuses on, especially in the last two seasons after Nina Dobrev, who played the aforementioned girl named Elena Gilbert, left the show. No matter how far into the darkness one goes, the other brother will always be there to pull them out of it.

So now it is time to say a final goodbye. This Friday, March 10th is the series finale. Dobrev will be back in the finale as Gilbert (and possibly her evil doppelgänger Katherine?) so the gang will officially be together one last time. With the spin-off show "The Originals" coming back for season four the week after the finale airs, there will not be too much time for fans to be upset and wonder if any of their favorite ‘Vampire Diaries’ characters will end up on the spin-off. There is no doubt though that it will be an emotional goodbye, both on screen and off as the stars and creator live tweet during the show, but it is time to say goodbye. So goodbye to the show that has been a part of my life for a solid eight years, to the show and characters that I have grown up alongside. It has definitely been one hell of a ride, and I cannot wait to see how it ends.