An End Is Just Another Beginning
I have always enjoyed open endings in cinema, television and in literature. Endings that make us imagine how the story can continue. When we know that the story is not completely finished. Another chapter is written, that’s all. One phase ends so another can begin. Endings that remind us that an end is just another beginning.
Our lives are full of cycles that begin and end. So we will live through many beginnings and endings. Some of them we will experience first hand and will be phases of our own lives, and others we will experience through the stories of others, whether they are true stories or not.
We will experience first-hand love stories and breakups, getting top marks or failing in science or math, falling when we learn to walk or cycling, the friends we meet along the way and others we lose…
And from others around us, we learn through the stories they tell us about their own experiences. And of course we have the chance to learn from the characters in books and movies.
“We must have many endings so that we can have many beginnings.”
-Laura Chica-
The end of a book
Once again I close the book and I go from the end back to the beginning, from the back to the cover. To rediscover the title, to pay attention to the illustration on the front page, to hold the book in my arms and spend a few minutes in silence… while my mind travels through its words, its pages and its history again.
But I have to get back to reality, whether I like it or not. The end has come. It always tastes so bittersweet when you have been immersed in a story and its journey has silently blended into your own.
It does not matter if these stories are told by movies, books or TV series. Long or short stories, either hours, days, months or years. Whatever they do, they all finally reach their dreaded but equally expected end.
Sometimes there is an open end. It gives wings to your imagination to continue the story when no scenes or words remain. In other cases, it’s just a sudden end.
Like when screenwriters of a TV series go on strike. Or an author wants to do more of a book but is never happy with it. Or even one of those endings that does not feel like an end. After a wonderful story, the person who moved the strings knew how to end it.
“Not all endings are happy. But all endings are a new beginning with new opportunities to be happy. ”
-Albert Ureña-
Say goodbye and then start your new adventure
Sad or happy endings, endings that can not even be defined, but endings nonetheless. Endings that mark something more than new beginnings.
The time has come to wake up and say goodbye to the story that will continue in your mind. And then to start on new experiences.
When a book is closed, a movie is finished, it’s time to find new stories and let other characters teach us how to dream and live. Like any ending, an ending is just a beginning. An opportunity to open ourselves to new and unknown things.
Saying goodbye is never easy, but it is necessary.
An end is just another beginning
Getting to the end of a story that ignites our passion is never easy. It’s not even easy when we talk about fictional stories, when the characters have touched our hearts.
So it’s even harder when we have to accept that life is cyclical, and it’s a time for everything. And when something comes to an end, we have no choice but to accept that it will not continue to open us up to new opportunities.
Everything starts and ends, even life. Every living thing is born and dies. And during life it goes through several stages of growth and evolution. As humans, from the moment we are conceived, we begin to grow.
And for us to be born, nine months later, the pregnancy must come to an end. Let’s look at the world as babies and keep growing. From children to adolescence, then to adulthood, and finally, old age will find us.
Each start of a new phase is linked to the end of the previous one. An end is just another beginning. Nothing more… nor anything less.
“Every time something goes, it makes room for what follows.”
-Jorge Bucay-
