The end of “everything must come to an end”

Tyler McNeil

Creative Editor

I often refuse to say “goodbye.” Sometimes I walk away from conversations without a proper ending, because endings are never veritably proper. I don’t have the right to end anything because I’ve never started anything, I’ve just continued everything I’ve been given.

There’s a common, overused and odiously abused phrase: “Everything must come to an end.” Every word you speak, every thought you collect, every emotion you feel and every action you take is billions of years in the making.

Every skyscraper disappearing into the clouds in the distance, every sidewalk your feet step upon, everything you see in media is more than just a moment; it’s a project. Even the smallest actions like putting on your car turn signal, pouring coffee, plugging in a phone charger, and running all over your house after your phone charger goes missing took countless generations just to produce.

That one moment in time was just waiting to make an appearance in all of the right conditions. It might seem insignificant, but it’s not — it’s wonderful.

It’s not naive to understand that all living beings are part of one ever-expanding lineage. Our memories carry nothing but what we will carry on for future generations. Every second, we are influencing others who we will never even meet. Sometimes this comes with a name or a face, but usually it comes with a heedless absorption from our surroundings.

We live for sequences in history that may seem frivolous and boring but will never happen quite the same way, ever again. We go through billions of frames per second that can never be replayed exactly the same again but, just like us, there are pieces of the legacy of time infused within every growing piece of the present.

It’s not a race with one endpoint or a one-man team, it’s a relay race.

When we leave, it won’t be the end. I’m not suggesting or dismissing any kind of spiritual afterlife. I’m suggesting life being afterwards with countless generations stamping their feet across the globe with our signatures, carrying on the thoughts of the deceased and the forgotten.

I refuse to say “goodbye” when nothing has really ended.