A love letter to Robin

On the ‘How I Met Your Mother’ finale: When you truly meet your Robin, it’ll hit you like a sucker punch.

So after nine years, the most stressful/tiring/romantic sitcom ever aired its final episode this week. For days, people have been either raving or bashing the series finale of How I Met Your Mother all across the Internet.

My brother and I loved it. For him, it was inspirational for all the nice guys out there. He said it was a great ending to Ted’s story. Okay, sure. But I got something else from it.

As the credits rolled for the last time, I realized that it wasn’t a fable for all the nice guys out there, but a love letter to all the Robins of the world.

For nearly a decade, we followed Ted as he searched for love. In those same nine seasons, we met and grew to love the character Robin. And more and more that character reminded us of the Robin in our lives, the person who despite his/her ups and downs reminds us of love. We got to appreciate the person we’d do anything for more, whether they reciprocated it or not. Every week, we got to see the same person we see in our daily lives, the same person we can’t stop telling everyone about.

We all have a Robin. For the lucky ones, they’re with their Robins now. They are where Ted is in that last scene. For most of us, we aren’t with our Robins, but we already know them and we remember every time we’re with them. We remember walking them home after a long night out. We remember being beside them at a concert when the band played their last song. We remember all the fights and awkward nights. We remember the time we fell for them and when they broke our hearts. And we know that everything — all of it — was worth it. We know that when it comes to our Robin, nothing else matters.

There may come a time when you meet someone else. They will be great in every way possible. They can be smart, beautiful, funny, and kind. They can be perfect. But they won’t be Robin. They won’t be the one that will make you think you’re crazy at three in the morning. They won’t be the ones that will make you go against everything you once believed in. They won’t be the ones who’ll break your heart like never before. Not being with your Robin isn’t necessarily a bad thing. In most cases, that is what happens.

That’s not to say, if you don’t end up with your Robin, your life will be miserable, of course. If you do find someone you can spend the rest of your life with, there’s nothing to say but congratulations. The worst thing that can happen is never meeting your Robin.

If you haven’t found your Robin, don’t worry. That doesn’t mean you won’t. Like in the show itself, your Robin won’t be the first person you kiss or your first relationship. It’s pretty safe to say you won’t meet your Robin in high school or college. When you do meet your Robin, it’ll come out of nowhere. You could’ve already known them but that’s different from falling for them. It’s something you can never prepare for. When you truly meet your Robin, it’ll hit you like a sucker punch.

I met my Robin not too long ago. I didn’t expect it to be her, to be honest. I’ve seen her around and never really paid much attention. We were introduced to each other more than once and that was all there was to it. As with most surprises, it happened on a random night and like all good stories, drinks were involved. A couple of weeks later, we started hanging out, got to know each other a little more, and somewhere in the middle of it all was when I fell for her, when I knew I’d found my Robin.

I was talking to a friend a few days ago and we were discussing our Robins. As we talked and described our respective persons, I could tell that my friend hadn’t met her Robin yet and it just solidified that I have, in fact, met mine. Maybe the biggest difference my Robin had from my friend’s was that I know I can share my entire life with my Robin.  Sure, both my friend and I had chemistry with our respective Robins but to actually share yourself with someone else? That requires something more than chemistry. Your Robin not only accepts but also understands all your angst, dreams, frustrations and desires, everything you hate and everything you love, all the things you have and all the things you lack. That’s what I found with my Robin and what I hope my friend will soon find as well.

A Robin is the person you can love unconditionally. It doesn’t matter who they are right now for you. You love them with everything you’ve got, as a friend or as a lover. No matter what your Robin does, you can’t help but love her. I’m not with my Robin now but I’d be lying if I said I don’t love her. There are days when I hate the fact that the love is still there. There are worse days when all I want to do is tell her I love her but I know I can’t. Most days, I’m just grateful I got to meet her. Because we all deserve to meet our Robins, we all need to meet that person who will change our lives for the better.

I don’t know if I’ll end up with my Robin or even if I’ll ever see her again. I don’t even know if I’ll ever get to tell her that I love her.  I guess only time will tell. Until that day comes, I’ll always look to How I Met Your Mother as a memento of hope — one that reminds all of us why love is a story worth telling.