The Office: Halloween Heartbreak

As a teacher, I have no idea what is really running through the minds of the students I teach. I have no idea what drama my students are in the midst of. I have no idea of the pain and hurt that they may be in. I can only relate thinking back to my days in high school and remembering how certain events seemed so dramatic for me at the time.

I remember one particular instance around Halloween in grade twelve. I had the biggest crush on one girl for a long time. I remember thinking that a relationship was going to work out (finally!), but it got derailed. I remember acutely how I was distraught, devastated, and angry that things didn’t work out. I was bitter and I clearly remember aimlessly walking the streets in the rain, not knowing what to do next.

I look back now thirteen years later and chuckle at how crazy I must have seemed back then. To me, it seemed like my world was ending and that the hurt inside myself threatened to cause me to explode. Now, I wish I could tell my younger self that it was not the end of the world, that I could survive this minor episode of my life. Even though the constant buzz in my head would rattle me and everything else around me seemed less important, I would rebound.

I was reminded about all this as I watched The Office last Thursday. These one hour episodes have allowed for the writers to explore many of the characters in a deeper manner. At times, the one hour episodes have sagged under the strain of stretching silly plots for far too long. But this last episode was full of comedy and sorrow. And sometimes the best comedy arises out of pain and sorrow, something that The Office has done so well over the last two seasons (see anything involving Michael or Pam/Jim’s storyline). Dwight Schrute has been a crazy character at times that has been played for much comedic relief. We all anticipate his over the top antics and this episode was full of them. His bed and breakfast farm experience was classical Schrute: weird and disturbing. But this episode also managed to speak about love and the pain that it can bring sometimes. Dwight was a shell of himself and simply destroyed by the loss of Angela. His painful moaning in the stairwell was humourous, yet we could feel his anguish. Then Jim, reaching out to his mortal enemy, succinctly summed up what the feeling of love denied feels like. Jim was right that food doesn’t taste right and it becomes difficult to even be around the person. Jim ran away from Pam, because he couldn’t bear the thought of her getting married. Jim’s wise words brought Dwight out of his stupor and Dwight actually reached out to get a hug from Jim, who had already disappeared.

The brilliance of The Office is in the midst of over-the-top comedy, they can reveal nuggets of truth about life. The next scene where Dwight marches back into The Office and proceeds to clear Jim’s stuff off his desk with a ruler, while making a call to a prospective paper buyer, is one of the reasons I love this show. Dwight was back and the loss of a loved one would not ruin his life. We all get stronger from experiences that bring us pain. We just need to deal with it and move on to the next chapter in our lives.

Many years after grade 12, Halloween would bring a certain jabbing pain as a reminder of what I thought I had “endured” around that time. As time passed, the pain subsided and all that was left was a faint impression of what had occurred before. Sure there would be more love lost and heartbreak through the years, but each relationship or failed relationship only added more dimensions to my life. Now, Halloween brings a smile to my face, not because of the candy, but because it was around this time, three years ago, that I, dressed up as Harry Potter, met my fiancé at a UBC Halloween party. Jim has found love with Pam and there moments are good. I have found love and life is good (sorry to rip you off LG). There will always be hope for all us Dwight Schrutes of the world.

(Feel free to throw up at the end of my last paragraph if you wish… but it is a true story)