I didn’t even consider how apropos it is to write about endings this time of year until I just typed that title. So please don’t think I’m cheesy.

Endings are the most difficult part of every story. It’s much easier to wrap up a story with an “And that’s my story,” or “Tah-dah,” or even “The End” than it is to think of a true ending.

But it’s reflective of life isn’t it? The endings are never so clear cut. The calendar may say January 1 but the load of laundry I put in the drier last year will stay there until I take it out and fold it, I still need to lose 15 pounds, my desktop is still a mess and I’m still a mom, wife, friend, employee of the same cast of characters. Where’s the ending?

Relationships do end. But they seldom have a well-defined ending. Any breakup I’ve ever been a party to has happened in fits and starts. Despite the declarative statements there is often breakup sex and more often tearful phone calls. The shorter the entanglement the easier the clean break. But the longer the plot line of the relationship the harder it is to write a suitable kicker.

As a newspaper reporter, the easiest way I found to close a story was to give someone the last word. I’d dig through my notebook and find a suitably pithy, summing-up quote and I’d use it as the final words of the story. It was a crutch that I resolved one year to abandon, so I pushed deadlines to the limit trying to write my own suitable closing lines, which were so often, well, bad. When I had copy editors calling me at home at night to suggest changing my endings to close with a quote instead, I abandoned my quest.

Who knows, maybe it’s just me who finds endings tricky, arduous and elusive. After all in my first year as a flack, the loss of my first account brought me to breakup-worthy tears (the been-jilted kind).

For example, right now I’m struggling with how to end this post. This post that few will read and fewer will remember. Because it seems to me I had a point to make when I started here or at least thought I’d find my way to one by the time I got here.

Tah-dah?