Hello, friends!
If you’re new here, welcome to Boy in Pink! If you’re returning, let’s talk DEATH.
Whenever I rewatch season three of Charmed and get to the episode “Death Takes a Halliwell,” I get a melancholic feeling. Prue vows to stop the Angel of Death from taking the sisters’ innocent of the week, but she learns a very painful truth: death is neither good or evil. It just is. When the episode ends and Prue is crying on the beach, I get emotional knowing that her character will be dead by the end of the season. Knowing her fate makes me cherish those last six episodes of the season. I don’t want to see Prue go, but her death is inevitable, even vital to the series. In a sort of morbid way, the looming presence of death reminds me of this upcoming week.
In case you don’t know, I’m a senior in college, and this week will be my last week of classes. Come Friday, May 3, I will officially be a college graduate. While I’m excited about graduation and the opportunities that will follow, this week will be admittedly hard. Like the last half of Charmed’s third season, this week lingers with the threat of death and the end of something wonderful. Soon, the days of getting a coffee from Maples will be over. There won’t be anymore eating at the caf at 11:00. Gone are the days of walking to my friends’ apartment and eating peach cobbler. No more workshopping my work with a lively group of talented writers. Tea spilling sessions over energy drinks and half written papers is out. I won’t have to check my school email frequently. Clubbing on Saturday nights and doing homework on Sunday afternoons will eventually be distant memories. If you’re not picking up what I’m putting down, my college days –– four whole years of my life –– are coming to an end.
“Damn, Derrick. This is a little depressing, don’t you think?”
Well, yes! But let me finish before you think I’m just being a sentimental sap right now.
Although the last few episodes of season three are hard and the season four premiere is gut wrenching, there’s still hope for Charmed. Although Prue is gone, Piper and Phoebe meet Paige, the younger sister they didn’t know existed (I know, I know. How convenient they didn’t meet her til their other sister died. But stick with me, okay?). Paige breathes new life into the sisters. Protecting Paige gives Phoebe purpose and keeps her grief from overtaking her. Although she butts heads with Paige at first, Piper grows to love her sister deeply and even states in a season five episode that Paige is “the reason [she] is still standing here. She brought this family back together.” If Prue’s last stretch on Charmed is gloomy and foreboding, Paige’s introduction is the rainbow after the storm. She is a door wide open with possibilities after Prue’s closes.
“Aw! That’s almost poetic, Derrick! But what’s that got to do with you and college?”
I’m glad you asked! Right now, this coming week feels like episodes seventeen to twenty-two of season three, and I’m sure May 3 will feel like “All Hell Breaks Loose.” Hell, I’m willing to bet the day after will feel like “ Charmed Again Part 1.” But the days to come –– oh the days to come! –– I know they’re going to feel like “Charmed Again Part 2.” Sure, I might have days that feel like “Hell Hath No Fury,” but for every episode like that there will be a “Size Matters.” I’ll experience joy like the end of “A Knight to Remember” and catharsis like “A Paige from the Past.” There’s going to be heartaches and struggles in the days and years to come after college. But I’m a survivor and will always be, which is why I’ve truly been charmed. I’ll let myself weep and rage like Piper this week since I am losing something. I’ll distract myself like Phoebe, so I don’t have to think about the loss. But I’m going to do like both sisters eventually did and accept my new fate. My Prue era may be coming to a close, but I’ve got Paiges and Paiges worth of adventures to look forward to.
That’s all I’ve got for right now! Shoutout to my best friend for posting an emotional collage on Instagram that really got me in my feelings. If you liked what you read, consider subscribing to Boy in Pink where I might talk about the utter campiness of Desperate Housewives or lore dump about my life. You never know with me, and honestly I think that’s part of my charm. Okay. I’ll see myself out.
Faith, trust, pixie dust,
Derrick <<<<<33333
We love you to the moon and back Derrick. You are going to change lives; you make this world a better place just by being here. ♥