“The great moments of your life won't necessarily be the things you do, they'll also be the things that happen to you. Now, I'm not saying you can't take action to affect the outcome of your life, you have to take action, and you will. But never forget that on any day, you can step out the front door and your whole life can change forever. You see, the universe has a plan, kids, and that plan is always in motion. A butterfly flaps its wings, and it starts to rain. It's a scary thought, but it's also kind of wonderful. All these little parts of the machine constantly working, making sure that you end up exactly where you're supposed to be, exactly when you're supposed to be there. The right place at the right time.”
— Ted Mosby.
"You’re either the yellow umbrella or the blue french horn...."
You’re either pining your life away for a Robin you can never have, or you find yourself with a Tracy, who comes into your life like November rain; with no warning whatsoever.
When I first watched How I Met Your Mother, I was a teenager. I remembered getting stuck with it because of my curiosity to know who the mother was. But now, as I re-watched the series again, it amazed me how even after being categorised as a sitcom, HIMYM managed to paint something much, much broader.
In real life, we are all more or less like Ted Mosby in some ways. We run and run and run, after things that sometimes make little sense, things that are actually not good for us, all the while hoping that it’ll get us where we want to go.
We are optimistic, we are dreamers, and just like Ted, we are all clueless about what will happen next.
“It’s funny how you just.... find things,” Ted once said.
And it is, isn’t it?
How we go out into the world hoping for one thing and end up with another. Life shifts without warning, and things happen without context. Season’s change, people come and go, life continues like a long-winded book. You watch the person you wanted for yourself getting married to someone else, only to find the love of your life the very next second.
Life is whimsical, unexpected, that way. And that’s what HIMYM brings out in itself, effortlessly.
How I Met Your Mother is a sitcom where Ted Mosby tells his kids about the story of how he met the love of his life, all the while painting a picture about friendship, heartbreaks, and just living, in general.
It's not a mind-blowing series that'll keep you at the edge of your seat, but it does have its charms and wits.
The sitcom’s ending is quite unexpected as well, but even that makes things more realistic.
You can never force something to happen when it’s not supposed to happen. If it’s meant to be, it’ll be there, precisely on time and never before that....