Have you ever finished a book and just cried that you can't spend more time with those characters? It might have been a giant series (think all 7 books of Harry Potter) where you think "I've spent thousands of pages with these characters...I'll miss them?" Or maybe it was such a great book that you felt that way after just a single novel. Now imagine spending 5 hours a week for 22 years with the same characters and imagine how much you might miss them. That's me today with the final episode of "Guiding Light."

I've watched GL on and off since middle school. My sister got my hooked one summer when she got a job babysitting some kids and found it a good break during the kids' naps. (Still is). Since then, it has been a comforting presence as I went away to college (it was like Josh and Reva came with me), through exams, through sleepless days and nights with newborns, and yes, through icky post-chemo days. There's been comfort in knowing GL is there on my DVR on a tough day.

Yes, you may laugh. Soap opera is by its very definition a laughable genre. It is built on characters returning from the dead, marrying their ex-husband's father, and recovering from life threatening comas in the blink of an eye. A child character might go away as a 6 year old, and return a year later as 13 year old -- a phenomenon known amongst soap opera watchers as Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome, or SORAS. Soap opera watchers "get" the silliness of these stories -- but we're willing to accept these leaps of faith. Because when done right, the preposterous stories lead to a powerful emotional payoff. And the payoff is strong in a way that isn't possible in other genres because of the richness of the characters and the depth of character and family histories on the show. It is that rather than the crazy plotlines that have kept me glued to GL for so long. The Bauer family has been on GL since the stories were told on the radio, so you can imagine the family history that can be culled to create interesting storylines and to show how the past impacts the present.

So yes, I'm serious when I say that I will miss "Guiding Light." I will miss Reva Shayne, and Phillip Spaulding, and of course Rick Bauer, who I was sure I would marry one day back when I was in high school. I wish I could see just how Blake and Frank's burgeoning new dating relationship ends up. Or how Jonathan will change now that he's returned with his young daughter to Springfield. I will miss watching the family dynamics, and discussing the things that brought me joy with Robin or other GL watchers. I will miss guessing what will happen next. I will miss the smile that comes from watching. RIP Guiding Light.