*Caution: contains spoilers regarding the finale of How I Met Your Mother. Read with caution.

A lot can happen in one year: Russia can annex Crimea. Malaysia Airlines flight 370 can disappear. Scotland can vote to stay in the UK. Ebola can attack West Africa. Emma Watson can fight for gender equality. Frozen can drive everyone insane. The World Cup can bring the world together. The gas prices can momentarily plummet.

And our hearts can be ripped out of our chest by possibly the worst finale to air on television since Lost.

So many things can happen,  it makes you put your life in perspective. It makes you reevaluate how far you have come, and how far you still have to go. It makes you realize how much you miss Ted, Barney, Marshall, Lily and Robin.

Throughout the time How I Met Your Mother aired on TV, viewers remained loyal throughout nine seasons of interesting hair choices (@LilyAldrin…), nine seasons of learning the ways of the Bro Code and most importantly, nine seasons of waiting to find out who Ted ends up with. And then it all ended. And we are left asking ourselves “How much has changed since March 31, 2014?”

Our progress as a society can be perfectly exemplified by the “new” iPhone 6. How can something be so revolutionary, yet just another version of the original phone which made its debut in 2007? We as a people have come so far and somehow are still the same. We can see this with the release of the new Star Wars movie coming out this December. Just as Ted, Marshall and Barney reevaluate their lives every time they watch the trilogy, we begin to look towards the release of the new Star Wars wishing our three Legen-wait for it-dary friends were there to watch it with us.

One thing we could always count on with Ted was his classic yet ridiculous Halloween costume of the Hanging Chad (we still don’t get the joke either) and his epic search for The Slutty Pumpkin. Now that he and his forbidden love are gone, we are stuck with the human race completely transformed into Anna, Elsa and Olaf. At this point we’d almost prefer the Hanging Chad and The Slutty Pumpkin.

In six years we have seen the Canadian Pop Star Justin Bieber rise to super-stardom, cut his hair, get arrested, go through puberty, date Selena Gomez, spit on his fans, get detained in a foreign country, get arrested (again) and finally get roasted on live television. In that same amount of time, Canadian Pop Star Robin Sparkles had already created possibly the greatest music video to ever grace the screen.

The East Coast has experienced record-breaking cold, stormy weather throughout winter. As we in sunny Southern California complain about the “sweltering” heat of a whopping 75 degrees, the East Coastians are huddling under a sea of umbrellas. You never know, one of those might just be the revered yellow umbrella.

P.S. The Eiffel Tower celebrated its 125th anniversary the exact day of the finale of How I Met Your Mother. Was this a tribute to Ted’s celebrated career in architecture? Or just a mere coincidence? The world may never know, just as we will never know for sure if Ted and Robin actually end up together.