Everything OTH Is To Me Kelsey Marko

Its just a show my husband, Josh, says to me as Im crying during the first episode of Season 9, the final season of One Tree Hill. As usual, hes right...it is just. a. show. What he doesnt understand, though, is that I (and many others) have grown up with this show. I remember watching the Pilot episode on my first day of high school, at a mere 14 years old and I was addicted. I fell in love with the story line, characters, and heart of the show. Every week after, I tuned in to watch the characters face hardships, form friendships, have fun and endure loss. For the next 4 years of high school I grew up with these characters and also formed friendships, made mistakes and faced hardships (though Fall Out Boy didnt show up to my high school with our graduating class of 85 students!). I left for college at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and again, tuned in for the season premiere in my dorm room, at the age of 18. I matured in college while the characters matured in the show. The resounding themes stuck: hardships, friendships, and loss.just as they stuck for the next 4 years in my life. During this time I figured out what I wanted to do with my life, got accepted to medical school, and got married to my high school sweetheart. Then, when the fate of the show was uncertain, I cried as season 8 ended right before I walked in my college graduation ceremony. As soon as the show was picked up for a 9th season, I was ecstatic. Because of the mid-season start, I didnt get to watch the premiere on the first day of medical school, but rather on the first day of 2nd semester of medical school at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, at an age of 22. I got to watch it with my new husband of 7 months and new, good friend from medical school who had also watched the show growing up. Its incredible how much has happened in those 9 years since One Tree Hill premiered. When it started I was a lost, confused, sometimes rebellious 13 year old who had no idea that 9 years later I would be a first year medical student, a wife to her boyfriend at the time, and someone who has faced hardships, faced lost, but gained so much more. Gained an appreciation for life, for whats important in that life, what I believe in, and made an incredible amount of memories with old and new friends. Though so much of this journey is attributable to much more than One Tree Hill (thank you mom and dad!), I cant help but look back and reflect on how much this show, with such a simple premise, has truly influenced, in part, who I am today and who I will be tomorrow. I am so thankful for the writers, producers, and actors who put so much of their lives into this show, a show that was so special for so many fans. Im sure numerous other offers came up that were put to the side so this show could be filmed, and from the bottom of my heart, I thank you all. Because you gave so much more to all of usmore than you may realize. This show will last forever in all of us. I am in no way a writer, by any means, but needed to articulate my feelings and appreciation. Thank you. There is only one.One Tree Hill.

For all its insanity, One Tree Hill remains one of the most important productions in the history of North Carolina for one simple reason: It lasted. Even as production for film and TV moved out of stateor out of country, more oftenOne Tree Hill's patented combination of vacillating romance, 20-somethings playing shirtless teenagers and wall-to-wall emo rock that provided episode titles and a slew of bestselling soundtrack albums kept it on the air for nearly a decade, coming in second only to the original Beverly Hills, 90210 as the longest-running American teen drama. Its success was improbableoriginally a feature film, it was reconceived as a TV series and saw its production abruptly move to Wilmington after the then-head of The WB was concerned for the area after Dawsons Creek wrapped production there. (I dimly remember reading at the time he was moved to tears after receiving the key to the city.) It then got bumped at the last minute from a mid-season replacement to the fall lineup when The WB decided to preemptively dump the series Fearless before its premiere. It launched with no hype, negative reviews and was initially beaten in the ratings by a short-lived UPN sitcom called The Mullets. And then it somehow ran nine years.