I started watching The Vampire Diaries when I was a freshman in high school. I spent over five years of my life looking forward to #TVDThursdays, and I appreciated every single aspect of the journey that I chose to embark on. The characters, stories, actors, gifsets, songs… everything about the show left a mark on me and, like Nina Dobrev said in her final interview, “will be a part of my life until the end of my life.”

For years, I’ve been told by the people around me, “it’s just a silly vampire love triangle.” Anyone who has watched it and experienced it, however, would know that that’s simply not true. The Vampire Diaries has served as an anchor for thousands of people over the years, myself included. It taught me the importance of family, of forgiveness, and of sacrifice. It taught me that good people can do bad things, and bad people can do good things. I learned that not everything in life is black and white, but there are various shades of gray that we see and experience. Everyone deserves the benefit of the doubt, and sometimes the people that we least expect become the biggest parts of our lives. I began to understand that good or bad, our emotions are what make us human. Regardless of time and circumstances, the people who belong together will ultimately come together. The Vampire Diaries allowed me to understand myself better, as well as the people around me. The show taught me about life, life, happiness, and ultimately peace.

When I was fourteen years old, I experienced compassion and love for a fictional character for the first time. When I was fifteen, I created my first fandom blog and connected with hundreds of other people who felt the same way. When I turned sixteen, I used songs that played on TVD as the candle songs at my Sweet Sixteen. At seventeen, I rushed my birthday dinner so that I could get home in time to watch the night’s episode. When I turned eighteen, I used TVD to discover my passion for storytelling and writing. Now at nineteen, I’m finally saying goodbye to the characters that have been a part of my life for most of my life.

They say that the ability to feel compassion for people who do not really exist is simply a sign of a person’s humanity; being able to understand and relate to characters shows that you have the ability to connect with people whether they are real or not, and these are characters that I was able to connect with on a significantly high level. The death of Damon Salvatore at the end of season 5 left me crying on my birthday, and the character development of Caroline Forbes left me with the hope that even I could change myself into the person I hope to be one day. Every character left me with a lesson I’ll hold onto forever.

Last week was the last episode of The Vampire Diaries, and last night was the last time I saw my favorite characters all together. It was the last time I was able to experience the magic of Damon and Elena, and the last time I was able to connect with the TVD Family. It may be the end of the journey, but I’ll always be thankful that I had the opportunity to experience it in the way that I did. Call it passion or obsession, but having something that I felt so strongly for in my life truly made things so much easier. 8 years later, 171 episodes later, many heartbreaks and tragedies later, many triumphs and victories later… it’s finally time to say goodbye.