"The End"

 The End marks the end of a story--of a tale. It is a conclusion to some story or series of events that has achieved its final, logical conclusion. The prince and princess live happily ever after before. In life, I feel that I’ve experienced tons of “The End”s. But the story ends happily, and then it restarts, and then it continues and continues. Until the end of our lives. I find this facet remarkable about our lives--we experience tons of ups and downs, and, at times, even enjoy the what we think to be the endings. Even though these are but faux endings, it is still fun to revel in their delight.

The End that I had today was the conclusion of my final exams. I had my last exam today, and, with that, am concluding my exams for this quarter. This afternoon has been mostly celebratory, involving playing chess, watching TV, and feeling happy. This ending, I’m sure, will serve as motivation for me to continue working hard in subsequent quarters--the drive to feel a well-earned happiness would be a factor that pushes me to work hard and endure the temporary suffering that entails hard work.

But, nonetheless, it is also important for me to realize that this is the ending of only one small part of my life. There is not much consistency or uniformity among The Ends--some are shorter, some are longer. Some have a long gap until the start of the next chapter and return to normalcy. Others are partial ends, and only a small relief along the pathway of a long journey. Besides serving as a source of motivation, I suppose that such conclusions and celebratory moments are useful because they provide a transition in our goals--they allow us to replenish our minds and prepare for the upcoming goals.

In a sense then, I suppose that each day in its own way has a “The End,” in which we cease our activities for the day and head off to sleep. Sleep each day is certain, since we know we are almost certainly going to fall asleep at the end of the day. Yet, in addition to this aspect of predictability, it also provides an opportunity for us to restart the process, begin our journey again with renewed vigor, similar to such accomplishments. So, perhaps I should begin to live my days looking forward to sleep, as if it were an activity I wish to enjoy and make the most out of.

But what about when the story starts again? Among the abundance of other stories we enjoy and partake in, what is the proper way to begin the next day? To this question, I remark that life is an ongoing struggle, the biggest chapter out of them all, and that I should make my life a marathon, one in which I wish to make the most out of the individual chapters, while remembering that there is no definitive accomplishment that is a greater chapter than life itself.