There is only ONE TREE HILL…

9 Years ago, on September 23^rd, 2003 I sat on my black couch in Atlanta, GA and watched the Series premier of One Tree Hill on The WB. It is now 9 years later, April 4^th 2012, in Haymarket, VA I was sitting in an orange and white chair and I watched the series finale of this amazing show. This show isn't just about the characters and their stories, the wonderful music, and the way I have felt like a part of the show, for me it's about so much more….. its about 3 very real and serious relationships of my own with (MSF, YR, & BHTW) that I had during those 9 years.  During that time I watched this show and begrudgingly so did those 3 men. I used to sit with them on the various couches (Black, Beige, & Red) to watch it. Whether it was on a Monday, a Tuesday or a Wednesday, whether it was on at 8:00 or 9:00 and regardless of if I was in the south, on the east coast, or in the west, this show was the one thing I HAD TO WATCH every week.

It has now come to it’s end and I literally don't know what I will do without it. This show somehow reached me on a personal level, I think it's because when the characters struggled, I too was struggling in real life and somehow this show has given me hope.  Although it was fiction, you won’t find a single One Tree Hill fan who wouldn't say that fact was true for them as well.  The stories that were told, the quotes, the music lyrics, the heartache, the heartbreak, the tears of joy, and the tears of pain and sadness, were all very real and I felt that way as I watched.  Probably because I was crying in real life all the way through the 9 years it was on the air.

One thing is for sure, although it has come to it’s end with episode 187 titled “One Tree Hill”, I will watch it on DVD probably forever!  Who knows maybe I’ll even pass it on to my little girl someday when she’s a teenager and tell her to watch all 9 Seasons, that they have valuable life lessons in them.

Here is just one of those lesson’s in the form of a quote from the final episode, spoke by James Lafferty, as 

Nathan Scott:

“Every once in a while people step up, they rise above themselves. Sometimes they surprise you, and sometimes they fall short. Life is funny sometimes, it can push pretty hard, but if you look close enough you find hope in the words of children, in the bars of a song and in the eyes of someone you love. And if you're lucky, and if you're the luckiest person on this entire planet, the person you love decides to love you back.”   - Nathan Scott 

While I watched this show, as I mentioned in numerous different blog posts previously, there was music on this show that spoke to me on a real level.  Music that made this show what it is.  Creator Mark Schwahn, mentioned in the pre-finale interview that every episode was like it’s very own "mixed tape" because of the different music and artists they got to bring to the table on the show.  It’s interesting that there was a Tric reunion on the finale and they didn’t have 
Kate Voegele’s character Mia Catalano sing, nor did Jana Kramer come back to sing as Alex Dupre’, but I can’t be disappointed because this finale was probably better than I could ever have hoped for.

As the show comes to it’s end, one of the songs Gavin Degraw sings in the final episode really does teach me a lesson, which I already knew…believe in yourself!  So everyone takes a different feeling from songs but for me, this one is about believing in yourself and believing in someone else and having faith that someone else can and will stand by you no matter what.  I clearly have not found that person yet, but I am hopeful……

Belief
Makes things real
Makes things feel
Feel alright
Belief
Makes things true
Things like you
You and I
Tonight, you arrested my mind
When you came to my defense
With a knife
In the shape of your mouth
In the form of your body
With the wrath of a god
Oh, you stood by me
Belief

By Gavin Degraw

So recently I’ve been doing a lot of self-reflection and have become self-aware.  I’m doing some personal meditation and being mindful of the things in my life where I need to make changes.  The things in my life that I can control and the things and people that I can’t control.  In all honesty, those 3 relationships that came to an end, most certainly ended just as much because of me, as they did because of the other person.  I’d like to think that I’m not the only person that is trying to reflect on the decisions I made and the things I could have done differently, but as a wise person tells me quite regularly, “you can only change yourself, you can’t change anyone else”.  That being said, I certainly wish the best for those 3 men and hope that some day we will talk openly about the mistakes we each made and how we have learned and can grow as people because of those experiences.

For now, I say to you my readers, other fans of One Tree Hill, and to my family and friends, (as corny as it is to copy this line)….. There is only one LISA KATHRYN MARSH and I will forever be who I am today.  And I hope that at some point I will see the silver lining in everything that happened and be able to understand it all.  But right now, I am certainly trying to reflect on it.

So goodnight to everyone reading this, and goodbye to the show that will forever shape the kind of person I want to be!

Goodbye to One Tree Hill!!  Always and Forever……..

Oh and P.S. to any other fans...... Get the Season 9 Finale on DVD Box Set on Tuesday April 10th.  
For me it's just in time for the Tyler Hilton concert at Jamin Java in Vienna, VA on April 11th, and a perfect chance for one final autograph.