THE END

(No, this is not a post announcing that this blog will be ending!)

When a book or a film ends, it can be quite sad if you really enjoyed it. But on the whole, you're psychologically prepared for it to end, and although you might feel a little empty for up to 24 hours, you get over it pretty soon.

Somehow with series, be they TV series, or Harry Potter, the long journey you have taken with the characters makes the ending so much more sad. Again, you know that the series will have to end at some point, but when it does finally arrive there is a far greater emotional impact. I'm still trying to figure out why this is; what is the magical ingredient in series which makes their ending so much more shocking?

Originally I thought it might be the element of not knowing exactly when the ending will come, so you are less ready for the arrival. But in the case of many TV programmes, or a famous trilogy you still sort of know. Perhaps it is a deeper knowledge and understanding of the characters, due to the increased length of time you have spent with them. Even so, it probably takes longer to read War and Peace than the entire series of Harry Potter.

I can only conclude that the emptiness which follows the loss of a series is the loss of an integral part of your routine, your life. It may only be that you will never await the release of the much-anticipated, completely secret Harry Potter book again. Even if this only happened every couple of years, there is still the feeling of never again. A weekly TV programme might be even more missed; what am I supposed to do with my Tuesday evenings now??? For me, the most traumatising ending is the ending of a much-loved blog. Many of these post daily, or indeed publish their writing far more frequently than JK Rowling. So, if we go by my logic, the sadness following the ending of a blog would be 7 times worse the ending of your very favourite weekly TV programme! It would be approximately 700 times worse than the ending of Harry Potter.

Whilst I do add to my blog list when going through it, I have yet to take away. It has only been in existence for just over half a year, and my tastes don't change that much! But going through it, I am now very sad to see that a good few of these favourite blogs no longer post. I know that this is the only natural progression and that nobody is going to be keeping up daily posts forever and ever and ever. Novelists know that once they've finished their books, they're done. Actors know that they don't need to sign a new contract when the current one runs out. When a person starts a blog (unless it's for the specific purpose of recording one finite journey) they have no idea where it will take them and how long for.

A couple of much-missed blogs have been mysteriously shut down. Miss Karen, Ailsa, previously Agathe (not any more) I'm looking you, girls!

Some of you (if you are reading!) have very kindly left up your blogs so that we deprived and saddened readers can browse through your archives, although I actually find it too painful looking through them when I know that when I'm done, I'm done and there will be no more writing to look forward to. An open but un-updated blog also leaves a glimmer of hope, although any person suffering from the loss of a missing person will tell you that the not knowing only makes it worse. OK, now I'm getting a little melodramatic. But you get my point: when blogs end, I'm sad. Sadder than at the end of Friends (and that's saying something!).