Seeing as this is the last day, the last few hours even, before the finale, I thought I’d post this little essay I’ve been sitting on. I’ve been reflecting on why I care so much about this story and these characters, and I thought you guys might like to know why it means so much to me.
Okay. So. I discovered Second Shift in 2007, during what may end up being one of the lowest points in my life. I returned home from college in June of that year to a house that had been thrown into chaos. Unbeknownst to me, my parents were getting a divorce, we’d moved, my father was leaving the state, and everyone was miserable. Too soon after that, I left the country for Japan, where I then lived for 4 months.
I was…well, looking back on it now, it’s pretty obvious that I was depressed. I was in a new country, and even though I could speak the language, it was difficult to really enjoy anything. I slept constantly, making friends became harder and harder, and some days I just couldn’t bring myself to leave my room. I had this constant loop in my head about how my family had worked really hard to afford this opportunity, and I was squandering it, and that made me worse, so I just was talking less and less and…it was awful. I didn’t want to be in Japan, but I didn’t want to be at home either. I was torn between two places that I simultaneously wanted and didn’t want to be.
And in the midst of this was Second Shift, a story about a group of kids almost exactly my age trapped in another world, and the characters want to go home but they want to stay too and it was…it was everything I felt. Home had problems, stress and work and overly demanding parents and abusive exes; Laundi was wonderful but awful too, and it just wasn’t home. The characters were just as torn as I was.
Anyway, random rambling feelings aside, Second Shift just…made me feel less lonely, I guess. For all that they were fictional, Shauna and Mike and Katherine comforted me. Fesmer and Jareth and Arkahn made me not give up. And Zana never made me feel bad about my failures.
Long story short: I eventually went back home and built myself back up again. I was amazingly lucky, and life got better! I can look back on 2007 with more than just regret. But I’ve never forgotten that low place…and I will never forget who and what helped me then.
So to all the 2S cast and crew, thank you. Thank you for all the work you’ve done, and the amazing story you put together, and just…thanks for being awesome. It’s made all the difference.