“I wish there was a way to know you’re in the good ol’ days before you’ve actually left them.” ~Andy Bernard
And
thusly, not with a guffaw but a sniffle, “The Office” ended.
The
emotions came freely for me, which was both expected and unexpected. Cheesy as
it is to say, this innovative sitcom with a heart was always more than a show
to me. So in a sense, it very much felt as if a chapter is closing not only in television, but in my life.
Along
the course of its nine-year run, some elements of the plotline so closely
mirrored situations that were simultaneously occurring in my personal life that
they become a source of both pain and humor. “The Office” always provided a
degree of relatability for old coworkers, as well as a point of common ground
in establishing relationships at new jobs. Dunder-Mifflin Infinity
offered an easy way to burn hours at dead-end jobs, and some arcs even informed
ideas at more-inspiring opportunities.
Like
life itself, “The Office” offered painful goodbyes and bittersweet relationships,
monumental life changes and career adjustments, loves and heartaches, laughter
and tears, dreams and misses—sometimes all in the same episode.
I
think we all saw some small -- or large -- piece of ourselves in every character. In
Michael’s desire to keep fighting against the tide, Jim’s ability to find humor
in somber situations, Pam’s unwillingness to give up on her dreams, Dwight’s
fight to spread his worldview, Angela’s hope to hide from the world, Kevin’s inability
to accept how others view him, Oscar’s search for normalcy in an unstable
environment, Stanley’s pursuit of just making it by, Phyllis’s pull to mother
everyone, Meredith’s wish to drink her way through the day, Darrell’s constant
chase of what comes next, Ryan’s lessons learned from unchecked ambition, Kelly’s
insufferable enslavement at the hands of pop culture, Toby’s struggles to fit
in and express himself, Todd Packer’s complete and utter Todd Packer-ness, Erin’s
fight to put a happy face on everything, Andy’s need for affirmation, and Creed’s
... well, I don’t think any of us saw anything of ourselves in Creed. At least,
I hope not.
That’s
a long way of seeing that, for the self-aware set, there was always something
to learn from “The Office.” Maybe it was a lesson about office behavior.
Perhaps it was a moral about interpersonal relationships. Or an instruction on
an unwillingness to settle or an acknowledgment of dreams or the courage to
share your heart. And maybe, just maybe, it was an openness to be taught to fly.
So
much more than a sitcom and so much less than perfect, “The Office” was a
celebration of the mundane and a plea to embrace the area of our lives where we
spend most of our time. An urge to find the comedy inside the drudgery, the
laughter inside the enigma, the pearl inside an oyster made of copy paper.
More
than anything, this amazing series moved every one of your emotions, while
making you laugh—long and hard.
