I’m going to let you guys into a little secret that I don’t normally talk about. Back in 2003 I was at George Mason, trying to find myself and figure out what I was going to do with my life. I was dating Rob, and having a hard time finding my place in my life. So I’m sitting in my dorm room, thinking over everything, trying to write a blog post but the words to how I feel aren’t coming easy. How do write that you don’t know exactly who you are, and where you’re supposed to be?
I had the WB on my tiny 13 inch TV because I had been watching old reruns of Buffy prior to trying to write the post, perhaps trying to recapture my youthful optimism about where I was going to be when I was 18. Then, this ad comes on for the show that’s going to be on next, and the deep booming WB voice says the show’s name is One Tree Hill, and it’s the series premiere.
Now – those of you who watch the show know that Mark Schwahn got the inspiration from the U2 song called One Tree Hill, and me, being a huge U2 fan stopped what I was doing to watch a show named after one of my favorite bands songs. I instantly became hooked on the story of two brothers from the same father, raised apart and the people that surrounded them. The characters spoke to me because they were in the same place that I was – trying to find their place. Even the theme song, which you might have heard, “I Don’t Want To Be” by Gavin DeGraw spoke to me in a way that other things weren’t.
(Fun fact, Gavin’s had been shopping this song around for a year at this point – but only started to get traction because of the popularity of One Tree Hill. So for every Gavin DeGraw song that you hear that you love, you can totally thank One Tree Hill.)
So I tuned in the next week, and the week after that, and soon I fell in love with all the characters. They became like my own friends and family – I felt the story lines as if they had actually happened to me. I can’t count the amount of times I have laughed, cried, and screamed at my television over this show. I was utterly addicted. I wanted to be like Hayley and I wanted to have a boyfriend who was like Nathan. I wanted friends like Brooke and Peyton, Skills and Mouth. This was a show that pulled you in to their world, and wanted you to think that Tree Hill was a place, just around the corner. If you had a car, you could drive there.
Like when I went to Wilmington with some friends in college and we actually played a game of basketball on the river court in college – all because the season finale ended with a basketball game there. It’s watching Burnt Sienna for the first time at the Clarendon Ballroom with Maggie Davis and squeeing because did a cover of Gavin Degraw’s “Chariot” which we had just heard on OTH the night before. It was spending three hours in the basement of my parents house listening to my Dad tell me memories of his years in college because OTH featured Boston’s “A Man I’ll Never Be” on the season 5 finale and I asked him if he had it on CD. Or last year when Faith and Zack and I watched Brooke’s bachelorette episode… and Zack looked at me and told me that one day that would be me – I’d definitely do something silly like lose my ring because I was far too drunk. It’s every minute of every day in which this show has subtlety enriched my life, for 9 years.
“It’s the oldest story in the world, one day you’re 17 and you’re planning for someday, and then quietly, and without you really noticing, someday is today. And then someday is yesterday. And this is your life.” - Nathan Scott on One Tree Hill
It’s fitting that Mark Schwahn opened the narration of the show with that quote last night, because it’s kind of what happened in my life as well. Because you see, one day I was sitting in my dorm room, age 18, planning for someday… and now I’m sitting in my townhouse, age 27, and someday is here. This is my life… and it’s not what I thought I was going to be doing, and it’s definitely not where I thought I would be, but it’s mine.
So I wanted to say a very public thank you to Mark Schwahn and the cast and crew of One Tree Hill for the nine years of amazing memories, amazing music, and amazing story lines that have touched, changed and influenced my life. And for finally using U2′s One Tree Hill in the series. I’ve been waiting 9 years for that.