Yesterday afternoon, I crawled up on my couch after work and while the kids were still at daycare to watch the season finale of Parenthood. Let's be honest, I haven't been able to stay up until 11pm on a Thursday night in quite some time, so this Friday afternoon watchfest has become a sort of ritual. This show is one of my favorites, mainly because of its honest depiction of life. That, plus the fact that Craig T. Nelson has reminded me of my dad since starred on the show Coach, and this show pretty much had me from the get-go.
As I watched the story play out yesterday, I honed in on the Julia and Joel storyline. I feel a kindred connection to Julia's character (minus the part about cheating on my husband). She was portrayed as a go-getter, a woman who always was after success. Stanford degree, high-powered law firm, she was me. When she lost her job on the show, it sent me into long, contemplative thoughts about what we would do if I couldn't work, how that would change me as person. It revealed how much I value my title and the work I put into getting a P.A. degree. It made me think about how much pride I take when a paycheck goes into the bank with my name on it. Yes, a tv show had the ability to really make me think.
As I watched the finale as Joel and Julia decide to adopt Victor's little sister, something clicked in my head. Sometimes the best things in life are unplanned. If you know me at all, you know I like plans. 5 year plans, plans for next weekend, life goals, plans for potential economic downturns. You get the picture. I think Julia was a planner too, but here she was just throwing caution to the wind, I mean, a new baby, and like she said, they didn't even have room in the house (which Joel so cutely dispels because he can just build one). But what really got me was the scene when they fast forward and the FOUR children are opening up a puppy on Christmas morning. I don't know why that hit me so hard, but FOUR kids! Maybe it's because Brad and I have been spending a lot of time talking about how two kids might be enough for us, but I'm still not sure. Or maybe it is because it showed that plans are certainly not fool-proof and joy can be in the unexpected. Maybe it's because this show reminds me of my mom's family and how close they are and how there are just so many kids around and there is so much love in just being family. Or maybe it's all of the above.
I, like probably everyone in America that watches this show, audibly sobbed as Zeke asked Sarah if he was a good dad. Floods of childhood memories came flooding back into my head. The scene from my wedding day played as I asked my dad if he was ready to give me away and his response was, "No, but let's do this!" It made me want to hold my boys right now in this moment and smell their hair and listen to their laughter and capture their innocence for another day. It makes me think about my life and what the answer to the question, "Am I a good mother?" is. I mean, I just don't get this emotional watching the Housewives of New Jersey! Camille and Zeke's relationship reminds me of my parents. Both of them being so much about their kids and then having to face some pretty big changes in their empty nest years.
The parallels are enormous. And I know that I'm not alone. The struggles every Braverman family went through week after week are our struggles. They told our stories. And therein lies the greatness of this show. Therein lies why I will miss crying every Friday afternoon. I got to see my life mirrored back to me. I got to glimpse the special-ness of the ordinary in my own family. It left me with gratitude.
It left me grateful for struggles that I share with a family that loves me. It left me with gratitude that I have these incredibly amazing boys that I get to love and teach and, some days, lose my mind with for the rest of my life. It left me with more appreciation for the now, the unplanned, and the surprises. I'm sad that this show ended, but I think it's appropriate, because it felt too short, it felt like there was so much more we could learn together, but then doesn't life feel the same way? Don't we take for granted what we have, thinking there will always be time for this or that? I am filled with gratitude that, with all the mundane, mindless media out there, this show was able to have meaning for me beyond the screen. I will mourn the loss for a couple more days, but I will take with me the lessons the show has taught me about myself, and I am inspired because it has shown me that showing the real side of life, like I strive to on this blog, can mean so much to so many!
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