Let me preface this by saying that this note is a little long and sentimental.

TiVo is really one of the greatest inventions of all time and with it, I Tivo one of the greatest shows of all time: The Wonder Years. I decided to watch a few episodes this evening when I stumbled upon an episode that I had never seen before. I figured it would just be another wholesome tale of Kevin Arnold and Winnie Cooper, but it was not. It was instead the first of a two part episode in which Kevin quits his job to go visit Winnie at the resort she is working at for the summer only to find out that she is cheating on him with another guy. That's just not right. That kind of stuff doesn't happen to Kevin and Winnie...BECAUSE THEY ARE KEVIN AND WINNIE. Shockingly..the episode ends with an ominous "To be continued..."

Of course I have also TiVoed the second installment, and when I begin watching it I am unaware of something very important. This episode is the finale of The Wonder Years series. Anyone who knows this show subconciously knows how it is supposed to end. Winnie and Kevin will be together forever. Mr. Arnold will continue to be one of the most stubborn dads of all time, while Mrs. Arnold will continue to be the most blue-ribbon mother since June Cleaver. Wayne will continue being a jerk to everyone and the masses will be happy to see it end the way it all began.

I was completely let down, because that is most certainly not what happened. What actually happened was that it all fell apart and they expected us to be fine with it. Kevin and Winnie get into a big fight leading us to believe that things are over between them. Kevin proceeds to lose all of his money along with his car in a game of poker. He then decides to go home, but before he goes he punches the guy Winnie cheated on him with in the middle of the resort, getting Winnie fired. Then they coincidentally end up in the same backseat hitchhiking to the nearest bus station. After bickering in the car, they then end up on the side of the road in pouring down rain and have to take shelter in a barn. They admit that it can't last forever because they aren't kids anymore and even though they don't want their relationship to end, it has to. They get home the next day and the episode ends with a monologue from the infamous narrator, the older version of Kevin:

The next day Winnie and I came home. Back to where we'd started. It was the Fourth of July in that little suburban town, somehow though...things were different. Our past was here but our future was somewhere else, and we both knew sooner or later we had to go. It was the last July I spent in that town. The next year after graduation I was on my way. So, was Paul. He went to Harvard, of course...studied law...he's still allergic to everything. As for my father, well, we patched things up. Hey, we were a family for better or for worse, all for one and one for all. Karen's son was born that September, I gotta say I think he looks like me...poor kid. Mom...she did well: business woman, board chairman, grandmother, cooker of mashed potatoes. The Wayner stayed on in furniture, wood seemed to suit him. In fact, he took over the factory two years later when dad passed away. Winnie left the next summer to study art history in Paris. We wrote to each other once a week for the next eight years. I was there to meet her when she came home...with my wife and my first son, eight months old. Things never turn out exactly the way you planned. I know they didn't with me. Still, like my father used to say, 'Traffic's traffic, you go where life takes you' and growing up happens in a heartbeat. One day you're in diapers, the next you're gone, but the memories of childhood stay with you for the long haul. I remember a time, a place, a particular Fourth of July, the things that happened in that decade of war and change. I remember a house like a lot of houses, a yard like a lot of yards, on a street like a lot of other streets. I remember how hard it was growing up among people and places I loved. Most of all, I remember how hard it was to leave. And the thing is, after all these years...I still look back in wonder.

As I listened to that last monologue I couldn't help but think about just how true to life this ending actually was. I couldn't help thinking about all the things in my life that I had no idea were going to happen, or when they were going to happen, and I thought about how much I would have changed if I had known ahead of time. I would have respected my mother more and cherished the time I had with her, I would have expected less from my father to cushion the blow, I would have been a better big sister to a young boy who had few people to look up to, I would have spent less time being bitter about things I couldn't change, and I would have cried less tears over things that looking back, didn't matter at all. These are the things that I believe I would have done. But, then again maybe I wouldn't have. Maybe part of what makes your childhood so memorable is that you look back as an adult and realize that you learned from the mistakes you made and the things you weren't expecting shaped who you are today. I can't help but wonder if those "wonder years" of our lives are called wonder years for a reason. It was a time to wonder about all the things ahead. Sometimes we imagine that we will be in the same place forever with the same people forever...but the truth is that a lot of times we have to let go of the ones we have loved all of our lives for new loves. The truth is things never turn out exactly the way you planned and maybe that's the way it's supposed to be.