I watched the Jon and Kate Plus 8 series finale last week. It’s been a guilty pleasure of mine for as long as I can remember, but as their marriage comes to an end, I’m kind of sad.
Bad-ass Jon Gosselin
Not sad in the sense that I felt any emotional connection to the family, or that sick sadness that a train wreck was coming to an end, but rather a sadness based upon reflection.
The episode was a clip show that featured a few brief interview questions to the couple, and a lot of nice clips of the family before they fell apart. Girls everywhere have argued with me on this, but I feel bad for Jon. Especially with the news that he is already in another relationship.
Jon jumped into something he shouldn’t have a long time ago: a marriage he wasn’t ready for. There’s no way to get that time back, both Jon and Kate’s youth has been spent. While Jon tries to cope by wearing Ed Hardy and partying with younger women, the tell-tale signs of age (his baldness and paunch) are evident.
It may not be the right thing to do, but it’s what Jon thinks he needs. Kate has every right to be mad, but if it was your dad being shoved into the spotlight for a bad decision he made a long, long time ago, you might object. Jon and Kate jumped the gun together, they weren’t ready to spend a lifetime together. It’s the curse of their generation.
My parents divorced when I was 12 and my sister was 8. We grew up in a society where divorce was the norm, or at least, not that uncommon. We grew up in a country where the divorce rate hovered around 50% and it’s shaped a generation. It changes your perspective at any age that it occurs. Personally, I’m determined to marry for true love, and have devised a plan to accomplish this: it’s called “wait-til-your-thirty”. The way I see it, as long as I let myself mature fully, I’ll have less trouble in the long run.
The important thing here is: the Jon and Kate finale was neither tragic nor exciting. It’s life, and human’s are bound to make silly mistakes when we’re in love. Let’s just try to remember the good times when we can.
Bryan
dead.letters. 