One Tree Hill

One Tree Hill- 10 year anniversary

(source: www.weheartit.com)

To all my fellow Tree Hill lovers and blog visitors,
10 years ago One Tree Hill aired for the very first time and we where introduced to this little town in North Carolina, that would turn out to be a real gold-mine for so much talent; I mean after all, at the end of the show we had: a basketball superstar, more than one successful singer, a pilot, a writer, a producer, multiple tv hosts, and nanny Deb;)
But all fun aside, everyone who knows me knows that this show is part of my life and has accompanied me for most of my late teenage years. Yes, I have to be honest: I only started to watch the show when a friend of mine asked me if I would be interested to attend a Tyler Hilton concert in 2009. My first reaction was:"Who the *bleep* is this Hilton guy?!" She soon brought me up to date and I thought it would be a good idea to check out this tv show. I heard about it, but wasn´t too excited....once I finished the first episode I was hooked! I loved the rivalry between the brothers and the friendship between Haley and Lucas, plus Chad Micheal Murray playing basketball...LOVE!(I´m sorry, I guess these where the teenage hormones;) ).
Anyway, by the time the concert came along I was already feeling like a Tree Hill citizen, I cried, laughed and felt every emotion there is with this characters and could not wait to meet Tyler Hilton aka. Kris Keller. We went to the concert and I was amazed by this guy, not only is his music amazing, he took the time to meet his fans and it didn´t feel like he had to do it, it was more like he was hanging out with some friends. And this got me thinking, after browsing the web the next day I saw, how many fans OTH has around the world and how they where affected in the same way I was. The Tree Hill family helped each other trough every new episode and was even willing to discuss controversial episodes like "With tired eyes, tired minds, tired souls, we slept". The shows producers and executives understood the focus group and their fears.After all it is everyones biggest fear to be in a situation where you can not help yourself and have to put your faith into someones hand. Also this episode and the ones shortly after this where the first time I learned how it must feel if you loose a beloved friend/person. Little did I know, that in 2010 I would experience something similar in my own surroundings. It may sound totaly nuts but OTH fans might know what I mean, but the show kind of prepared me for a situation like this. It didn´t take away the pain and the burning quesition that was "Why?!", but it showed me, that no matter how hard it is right now, it will be better and it is!
As the years went by one thing was alsways there: My/ our Tree Hill in North Carolina. When I went wo visit Wilmington,NC aka Tree Hill for the first time, it was still filming, not the days we where there, but you could literally feel the presence of the fictional characters everywhere we went. It was so surreal to stand on the rivercourt, overviewing the river and seeing the riverwalk on the other side, but it felt like I belonged there. I was not disappointed at all when we walked around this beautiful city: To be honest, I thought we would not recognize anything and I would be disappointed, but everything was just as you saw it on tv. When I think of Tree Hill I think of a little town with a riverwalk, a bridge, a rivercourt, little cafes on the mainstreet and friendly people everywhere. And this is exactly what you get in Wilmington, this must have been a wonderful place to work, especially since the residents are so used to filming taking place in their town, that they are so open-mindet, you would not believe it!! This year I went back to this amazing place and the feeling was the same, BUT: The most crucial piece of "my" Tree Hill was gone, the rivercourt!! To be honest, when I stood on the grass, where the rivercourt once was (you could still see where it used to be), I had tears in my eyes. If the grass would not have been a little bit lighter than the rest we would maybe not have seen it. I tried to look for a sign or even a tiny note, that would say something like "This is the place, where the rivercourt of "One Tree Hill" was." or anything in this direction, but nothing, and this broke my heart! This town is probably the only town in North Carolina, that had a famous basketball court, so why not mention it?!Especially if you still have so many fans visiting! Well maybe in a few years, I would love that.
Ok, back to the show: 10 years people, can you believe that? Not every show can claim, that its viewers grew with it, but this was the case with One Tree Hill. It accompanied me till its end and as I grew older, the characters developed and build a life for themselfes. They showed us, that if you believe in yourself, you can accomplish so much. If Nathan for example would have given up, he never would have made it to the NBA, if Peyton would have put her love for music aside for a safe office job, she maybe would never have launched Red Bedroom Records and so on. And while we are talking about characters, let me tell you who my favourite character is:

(source: www.weheartit.com)

Peyton Sawyer!! I liked her from the minute she showed up on the tv screen. I instantly loved the bitchy, skinny, "no one understands me and my art" person that she was and I was not only interested in her lovelife, but even more in her passion for art and music. I see a lot of myself in her, not that I feel missunderstood or anything, but I know how it feels to have a dream and not believe enough in yourself to pursue it. Like her, I needed more than one "Lukas Eugene Scott" to push me and I´m still not there, but it dosen´t mean, that I´ll give up. Peyton had to go trough a lot especially when it comes to her family, who always comes for for her. If a relative or a friend needs help, she puts everything aside to help this person and she does not need anything in return, its self-evident for her. and have I mentioned her style? Okay lets put the seasons 1-4 behind aside, but season 5 and 6 are rocking, litterally!
The only thing, that ever bothered me was how Peyton, Lukas and Sawyer left Tree Hill; I mean we knew at some point that they would leave, but I would have loved it if I would know where exactly they went to live the rest of their life. Aaanyways....on the 10 year anniversary I look back with a smile on my face, because Lukas, Nathan, Haley, Peyton and Brooke the original main cast entertained us by introducing us to their world full of laughter and tears and they always made us feel like we where home. So now that the show is over for a year I´m not sad anymore, because if I need my One Tree Hill fix, it´s only 9 dvd boxes away and if I need to feel like home, I can always safe for a trip to Wilmington, because:


"This is the place, where everything is better and everything is safe!"

(source: www.weheartit.com)

So thank you Mark Schwahn for creating this little show that could and for letting us fall in love with Tree Hill,NC.

xoxo Nici