It's never day 0

For the past few weeks, I've spent precious hours of my time, that could be spent saving the world, watching nine seasons of my favourite sitcom, "How I Met Your Mother".

Yes! My favourite sitcom. The Big Bang Theory doesn't come close and I haven't watched the others.

I loved it. I loved it so much.

It's a great story about every single thing I believe in and fight for. Blind faith. Design—good design. Friends. Family. And even though there were times when I wished that story was written a bit differently, it is amazing how it ended satisfactorily.

I didn't want it to end.

Barney was a special character. Pretty disgusting, but I liked him. It takes a lot of courage to be Barney. His "I only have one rule" reminds me of several one-rule moments with my friends. I never understand why he goes through that much trouble to get laid but it turns out he relishes the act, not the prize.

His growth from a serial f----r to someone who believed in love, I liked it. He reminded me of me—not the serial f----r part. Lol. You'd think you don't care a lot about someone only to find out that you'd die if that 'someone' wasn't close by.

I didn't fancy Marshall a lot. I enjoyed his slaps a lot. I enjoyed his marriage, dedication, compromise and his interesting career shift. Let's talk about his career for a bit.

It took him years to figure out how to make the kind of impact he wanted to make as an environmentalist. To do this, he became a judge and eventually reached the Supreme Court.

It got me thinking how much of the process is decided by the outcome you want. Where you want to go gets to decide what road you pass.

Lily was an interesting one. I really didn't envy her career. But she's one person [asides Barney] that you'd really want in your corner. She was a great wife—and a really loyal one. That was an insanely long relationship—15 years!!!

I loved how she kept memories. She's pretty imperfect for her pros, but I can overlook that for the sake of this letter. If I had kids, I wouldn't want my daughter to be a Lily [and definitely not a Robin].

Before I talk about Robin, let's talk about a character who had a really short stint on the show. His real name is Kal Penn [also known as Seth Wright in the "Designated Survivor" who played the brilliant White House Press Secretary].

It was nostalgic seeing him on screen starring as Robin's therapist.

Okay, back to Robin.

Did you know Robin [played by Cobie Smulders] was in the Marvel Universe? She played the Lieutenant Maria Hill—the really beautiful SHIELD agent who's always with Nick Fury. To juggle your memory, she shot down the drone that almost killed Nick in Spiderman: Far From Home.

Robin is every lady's nightmare. No one wants to stay best friends with their exes. She had to do it twice—well thrice, Barney had two stints. I consider the least intelligent in the gang, and it didn't help that I laughed at every Canadian joke they threw at her.

Lol.

But Robin was great. She dated ex 1, broke up, hooked up with ex 2, dated ex 2, broke up, got back with ex 2, got engaged to ex 2, married ex 2, and divorced right after what they described as "getting naughty". She did all of this over the span of nine years, only to end up with ex 1.

It was a bumpy road.

Now, Ted.

You know that a person had to be the worst if in a gang that had Barney, Robin and shop-lifter Lily, the most pitiful and saddest of them all is the most moral. Well, second most moral—Marshall is the most moral.

Back to Ted, he had it rough all because he believed in destiny. And if we ignore Barney's almost 300 hookups, he had a pretty decent run in his quest for destiny.

Now that I think about it, the whole series is a bunch of imperfect dudes who lived life. This was life through the lens of five friends over the course of nine years.

It was messy, draining. At the time of experiencing it, they lost hope and made very bad decisions. For example, I never understood how they always had money for beer. Lol.

But it got me thinking.

Life isn't always great—it can't be. Living it however and telling your story years in the future can end up being a pretty good move. Barney had a kid. Lily had a third kid and a happy home and probably continued her job as an art consultant. Marshall made the Supreme Court. Ted got his dream girl twice, and his dream family. Robin got her big break.

Want to know their pitfalls? Barney had abandonment issues. Ted got fired multiple times. Lily ran away. Robin fell in a pile of shit while on TV. Marshall got fired twice. Lily was in a pile of debt because of her irrational spending. Ted got left at the altar, and eloped with a bride who left her husband at the altar. Barney has a gambling problem. Robin had daddy issues.

But somehow, at the end, everything was fine. Yes, there'd be issues after the story ends but if there's anything the story taught us, it was this: it will be fine.

Living life is a good move. It's always a good move. How you choose to live it is a journey you're on, not a choice you have to make right now. For me, right now, it is blind faith, good design, family and friends.

And let's agree on something real quick.

It's never Day 0. You never really start over. No one gets that luxury. The clock doesn't reset. It keeps counting. And even though life is generous to let you start over as many times as you'd need to, the clock doesn't say 00:00:00 any more.

Nevertheless, [and I never thought the day would come when I'd use it], one thing is for sure. Living life—my life—is going to be legend ... wait for it ... dary. LEGENDARY!!!

Ciao.

PS: I wrote without dividers today. Did you like it? I wanted a garment without seams—a seamless story.

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