I promise this won’t take 9 years to read. But this is the story of How I Met Ted Mosby.

It was February 2013, also known as Doppelganger Week and working in the office of the college newspaper, a coworker tells me how I remind them of a man by the name of Ted Mosby.  “You kind of look like him with the messy hair and the sloppy clothes, but you are also weird like him, too.”  Okay, this Ted guy sounds pretty cool, right? Hey wait – my clothes aren’t sloppy I just like to be comfortable, okay?

So then I decide to ask, well who is Ted Mosby anyway? I come to find out he is a character of a TV show called How I Met Your Mother, which focuses on a story about a man who tells his kids the story of how he met their mother.  Okay, pretty basic.  I’ll find time to watch that later.

*Flash forward 11 months*

January 2014 and I’m sitting at the Buffalo Niagara International Airport waiting for my flight that has a layover in Chicago to get me to New Orleans, but in true Buffalo fashion, the weather decides to be a pain in the ass.  (I’ll try to speed this story up, at the rate I’m going it will be 9 years.) So the flight gets cancelled going into Chicago and I can’t rebook and get a flight out until 6 days later, which means I totally will miss the majority of the service trip I am supposed to be on.  So how do I fill my time? Netflix of course!

That week I decided to binge watch this How I Met Your Mother that so many people tell me, I would LOVE.  So I do.  I decided that since I wasn’t able to be in New Orleans I would make the most of it and give myself a Buffalo vacation.  You know, scratch a few things of the local variety off my bucket list.  Well one day I went snow shoeing, and went to some cool places to eat and the other 90% of my week I spent in bed, meeting Ted. Did that sound like a euphemism for something else?

Anyway, I’m getting off track.

So that week I spent getting to know Ted and the gang and all their little quirks from slapbets and playbooks to the things we all could relate to: jobs, fears, loves, losses, friends and dreams. And through it all I really discovered I was a helluva lot like Ted Mosby.

I’m an idealist and a dreamer. I dream the biggest dreams, although sometimes it is way too scary to make them happen and when they do happen its surreal, yet unbelievable that you can achieve something so beyond what you think you are capable of.  I’m a complete goof who hates to be wrong.  Yes, I make myself laugh and quite honestly, I think I am the funniest person out there, disagree? Yeah, well your wrong.  Just ask my friends.  My snapchats, tweets, hell just me being me is one funny experience.  And yes, I am a little stubborn and wish I could have my way all the time, but I’m learning I can’t, which brings me to my next point.  I believe that we all have a greater purpose and that there is a greater purpose happening whether we realize it or not. Just as Ted believes that the universe is putting things together, I’d like to say God is doing that for me.  Some things fall apart so better things can fall together.  When one door closes, another opens.  Some people exit your life so better ones can enter…Yeah all that good stuff.  I think God is  always working for me and with me.  I now try to look for a message in the mess and that silver lining guides me through a lot of chaos. And finally I’m like Ted because I LOVE to tell stories.  It took him 9 years to tell his and it’s taken 22 plus years to write mine, but I’m working at it.

And that is why I fell in love with this show, and feel like I formed a pretty great friendship with Ted Mosby. Our lives are the greatest stories we know and we could flick on the TV every Monday at 8/7c and realize that some part of our lives made it on TV and that is pretty cool.  This show broke the typical sitcom structure to give us something different while giving us a love we have had for generations: stories.  Stories of real friends going through real experiences trying to make their dreams a reality.

To me, there is no better show that has been able to capture a story of a group of people falling in love, chasing their dreams and trying to live the best they can when shit hits the fan. And this 9-year story was wonderfully echoed in the series finale. To me it managed to showcase every emotion possible: fear, courage, sadness, joy, death, life, and love.  In one hour this story came full circle and for me, if you really know Ted, it’s the perfect ending for this story.

So whether you hated the finale, or loved it.  Whether you have met Ted, or still don’t know who he is, I can tell you that as an aspiring writer I am so proud with what the creators managed to do with this show.  It’s a dream of mine to create something as powerful and as real. I can say if it wasn’t for the genius of this show, its brilliant craftsmanship and beautiful, raw writing, I don’t think I would’ve really felt motivated to throw myself into the possibilities of my dreams, but I am and I plan on never giving up.

So yeah, that’s the story of how I met Ted Mosby.  The guy taught me a lot.  I’m actually giving love a try, going for my dreams and enjoying the family and friends I get to surround myself with.  I’m trying to survive the pitfalls and the twists and turns, but I’m cherishing and celebrating the big moments.  I’m loving the process and putting my faith in it, because where I am and where I’m going is exactly where I’m supposed to be, with the people I need to be with, doing what I’m destined to do.

And there’s no better story than that!

“Never forget that on any day, you can step out of the front door and your whole life can change forever. You see, the universe has a plan, kids, and that plan is always in motion. A butterfly flaps its wings and it starts to rain. It’s a scary thought, but it’s also kind of wonderful.”

-Ted Mosby, How I Met Your Mother