Stranger Things has meant so much to us all. Here is what it has meant to me and my thoughts on the final episode. Poster image provided by Netflix PR!
Goodbye Stranger Things! I will miss you more than you could ever know!
Hey All!
After a decade in the making, Stranger Things has finally come to an end and it feels almost like I’m in mourning. I have been in tears daily since it ended and I keep thinking of that line that Vision says, “What is grief, if not love persevering?”. And that’s just what this is. My heart aches because I’m trying to hold on to something I loved and meant so much to me. I’m fighting to hold on to the feelings the show made me feel.
I know most would say you’re being so dramatic! It’s just a show. This show was not just a show to me! It brought me back to my childhood. It brought me a nostalgia and a feeling and understanding of what it was like to grow up in that time. It transported me back to a simpler time even with all the monsters and adventures. A time free of social media, likes, views, and the internet. It wasn’t that I had a great child hood. It was pretty terrible, but I remember the times with my friends and my chosen family.
A time when people connected, made their own adventures and truly were there for each other because we didn’t have anyone else to lean on.
Often our parents weren’t there for us, so we raised and supported each other. This show ending was like saying goodbye to my childhood, saying goodbye to my best friend who I lost at 10, saying goodbye to my family and friends all over again when I moved across the country to Los Angeles to pursue my dreams of filmmaking. Dealing with the pain of never seeing some of them ever again. I knew I loved this show with a passion, but I never realized how much it meant to me until that ending and watching the kids say goodbye to their childhood. It hit me like a ton of bricks.
I feel like I went to a funeral and I’m struggling to deal with the grief. The grief of dealing with saying goodbye to my childhood and all that was a simpler time, but also the grief of saying goodbye to all the amazing experiences and memories I have because of this show! No one did activations and events like Netflix and Stranger Things. No show has made me want to collect every piece of merch and dress up and just have fun like this show.
Sure, I loved Game of Thrones, but Stranger Things always hit differently because every time a new season came on, it was almost like I got to go back to that time and relive those memories of hanging out and going on adventures with my friends. Hanging out at the mall, sneaking in and out of houses! Dressing in that clothing and listening to that music. It made you feel like it was all just yesterday and Netflix always did elaborate events for the fans and for creators to attend that truly helped transport you to year they were covering on the show.
The memories I have with my husband, working with Netflix, the friends I made because of this show, going to comic con and lighting a candle for barb and meeting Barb.
Having the best time trying to get that Dustin Stranger Things hat at comic con, because they had the best activation for Season 2.
Going to a real life Scoops Ahoy…
And having the most amazing demagorgon themed ice cream ever…
I literally made that Scoops Ahoy sign and these ice cream cups for my own USS Butterscotch sundae!
I went all out with themed parties, dressing up, just having the time of my life with this show. I will miss making those memories with this show the most! I took my baby son when he was under 1 years old to a Stranger Thing event and dressed him up in a scoops ahoy outfit.
One of the best times of my entire life was had with my husband, where we stayed up for 24 hours straight with Netflix and binged Stranger Things season 2. I was part of their Netflix Stream Team Creators and they threw a huge sleepover and had us binge all of season two! I miss being a part of the Stream Team so much! I have loved Netflix and this show since day one and it felt like a dream come true being a part of it.
We were called the Binge Racers and they had everything from an Eggo Waffle Truck…
To Kali/008 showing up and hanging out with us! Kali deserved so much better than how the world treated her character both on the show and as viewers. She did an incredible job as this character and she was so kind to all of us.
They had a target they built and they handed us all the merch that was out at the time and they even had old school cereals and food every hour on the hour! They transported us to hawkins and to that time and we lived in it it for 24 hours straight. We didn’t want it to end!
It was an incredible event and experience Netflix invited us to and we literally had the time of our lives! We talk about it every time we talk about Stranger Things or when we think of a time we had the most fun together. We had such a great time at this event, that when we finally came home 24 hours later we binged the whole season all over again. We were up for 48 hours straight on a Stranger Things high for season 2! That’s how much we loved this show!
These are just some of the photos and memories we had with this show. There are too many to share! It brought me and my husband closer together by having this show that we both loved so much. It was the best having a partner to geek out with and have these moments with.
I think that’s what hurts the most. I will miss making those memories with this show and with my husband and now son! Sure I will show it to my son when he’s older, but it just won’t be the same.
I will miss looking forward to seeing another season, as it felt like getting to see some friends that you haven’t seen in a long time and they are about to tell you all about the adventure they had when they were gone. It’s like I feel just like Mike saying goodbye at the end to his childhood and to a life he loved and knew and to all the amazing times he had with his friends. It feels even deeper than that, it feels like I’m finally saying goodbye to my childhood, because I truly never said goodbye to mine. I always had this mentality of I never want to grow up and I’m always going to let me inner child live on.
Something about seeing this show really affected me and made me realize it’s time to really say goodbye and let it all go. It’s time to let go and move forward and heal.
And as far as the final show goes, I loved it and in regards to what really happened to Eleven/Jane, I choose to believe! I believe she made it out and for the first time in her life is living for herself and not everyone else, because she always felt obligated to keep them safe. I feel she chose to kill Eleven to let Jane finally live. She chose herself because she deserved to choose herself and live a life different from all she has lived in her short life and I’m happy for her. She needed to leave it all behind and finally live her life free of everything that brought her so much pain.
Even if she loved them as her chosen family and loved Mike as her first love, She recognized this is her first love and life doesn’t have to be this way. She realized nothing would change if she didn’t leave. She set herself free! She knew she would find a life and love again.
She found a way out with the help of Kali and made a choice to remember Mike in a small way by finding a place similar to what they dreamed. It brought me to tears when I saw it! If he ever goes looking for those water falls maybe he’ll find her one day, but honestly I’m happy with her ending up with someone else and living her life how ever she chooses because she finally has a choice and she deserves it.
I took the sigh she lets out when she finds the water falls and town as a sigh of relief that she’s finally free and she finally found the place they both dreamed of to finally rest and live life. From the backpack and how disheveled she looks. You can see she’s been searching that whole year. And to those who are like how did she get there.
She has power to get whatever she wants! She wanted Eggos and she went and got them. If she needed clothes and money, she would find a way to get it. It’s not really hard to imagine her doing whatever she had to do to get there. I’m just glad they show us that she did make it out.
That’s what I chose to believe. The Duffers make it pretty obvious that it is what happens with all the hints of Mike putting it together and the song choice at the end, but it’s up to you on what you believe. That’s what I choose to believe as I’m choosing hope. I’m both happy for her but heartbroken at the same time as I will miss this show and what it meant to me so much!
I cried through the whole final episode and I’ve cried the whole time writing this.
I can go on and on about this show and what it meant to me, but I’ll just leave it at this:
Thank you to the Duffer Brothers and to Netflix and the cast of Stranger Things and to everyone who allowed me to be a part of this amazing ride in some small way. Thank you for bringing me along to slay the dragons on the campaign of a lifetime.
Thank you for seeing all the kids like myself who were never truly seen! You’ve inspired generations and you’ve inspired me like nothing else has. Elle has also inspired me to live better going forward. I’m choosing me this year and thanks to this show for inspiring me to choose me! I hope you all choose you too! You deserve it!
Good Bye Hawkins, Good Bye Stranger Things, Good Bye to a time I miss so much, Goodbye to a younger me that I miss so much, Goodbye Stream Team. Time is flying by and it’s time to really start living life just like Eleven. Time to live in the now and to be grateful for the choices we’ve made. I wouldn’t have a family and all the incredible experiences I’ve had in life if I didn’t choose to the life I have. Don’t take it for granted. I know Elle won’t!
