These past few weeks have had a lot of finales: Game of Thrones, Arrow, Hannibal, Supernatural, How I Met Your Mother, Mad Men, The 100, The Voice, American Idol, Dancing with the Stars, Silicon Valley, Veep, and a bunch more. You had a routine, made time for it. You got together with a group of friends or sat by yourself, got comfortable, and let a whirlwind of people and places and characters and dreams and plots all into your heart. These are the shows that made you gasp out loud, scream at your screen, and hide your face behind your hands because you just can’t bare it. These shows made you laugh, get attached to certain characters, cheer your favorite people on and watch them fall or succeed. These were the shows you looked forward to. Some you loved a bit more than you were willing to admit.

Then they had the gall to say they were done. Some just for a few months, some forever. But they aren’t allowed to be done. Even if the show was ready to end, hit everything that it needed to and it couldn’t go any further. It’s not ALLOWED to be done. It can’t be over with when it ends like that! If it was good, we want more. If it was bad, we want more so it’ll get fixed. It was good show over all and you liked it and you don’t want it to end. Now what are you supposed to do?

1) Text someone about it.

We have these feelings and damn it someone has to know about it. Even if they don’t watch the show, even if they watch the show and are begging you to not spoil it, you gotta tell them something. Even if its “OH MY GOD THE ENDING MADE ME FEEL EMOTIONS.” That’s okay. Get it out there. But don’t spoil if there is even the slightest hint they’ll watch the show someday. If you spoil, you are ruining it for another person. And that will make you an asshole. And if you spoil on Facebook, you are the lowest, most vile of creatures. Seriously. I hope your internet connection goes out when your next favorite show is on.

2) Think about that scene that totally changes everything over and over and over again

You still can’t believe that happened. It plays over and over in your head. Did that really just happen? What does that mean? Why why why why whyyyyyyyyy???? You can’t even close your eyes without thinking about it. There’s no freaking way you can go to sleep any time soon. Because the show isn’t the same show it was before that huge thing just happened. and never will be again. Even the real world looks a little bit different now. You’re half tempted to re-watch it to try and re-create that moment. But it won’t be the same. So you try to distract yourself, move on. But everything you try to do just feels so small in comparison. Because that thing you can’t believe just happened, so just happened. And there is no way to adequately respond to it.

3) Ride the waves of the next day reactions

Damn it feels good when someone asks you if you saw the finale. You feel so “in-the-know.” If you run into someone who didn’t see it, just smile knowingly and tell them they have to see it as soon as possible. I’m sure they haven’t been told that yet.

You also find yourself checking the internet, reading a few articles and blogs to see how total strangers reacted to the finale. You get this feeling of empowerment and justification when articles agree with you and you spend the rest of the day with your head held high. However, if the internet has a different response than you did, you find yourself questioning your entire existence. Well…maybe not your entire existence. But a bit of it. That’s when you have to decide if you’re gonna stick to your gut reaction or not. Just keep in mind that having a different position than everyone else may send mobs of people with pitch forks to your house. Or you’ll have a five to ten minute discussion with people about the finale and why you think your opinion is right. You can never know.

4) Mostly forget about the show for the rest of the week and go about your life

Occasionally people still want to talk about it, but not as much. You spend most of your time thinking about what you’re gonna order on seamless for dinner when you get home .

5) The night of your show that just had its finale comes around and you don’t know what to do with this newfound time

What did people even do before TV? Stare off into space all the time? You could always start reading a book, but….ehhhhhhh. You make a facebook status about how you miss your show and are extra sad it ended/won’t be back till ______ (insert time that is so far in the future, you can’t even stand to think about it for too long).

6) You discover or re-discover something incredible

Seriously. Has anyone else heard about this other show? Because it’s amazing. There are a bunch of episodes of it already so you can binge watch it for a while. Maybe you’ll even catch up to the current episodes. You text a few people about this new budding love and someone you weren’t expecting also watches this new show. Now you have to get more people into it. You tell everyone you know that this is the best show and that they all should be watching. A few of them might even listen.

And a new routine is born.