And how can I stand here with you
And not be moved kwa you
Would wewe tell me how could it be
Any better than this
-Everything, Lifehouse

The mwaka was 2003. Four people and over five hundred homes were Lost to a bushfire in Canberra, Australia. The United States Department of Homeland Security officially began their operation. Same sex marriage is a go in Belgium. An estimated eleven million people worldwide take to the streets to protest against the coming war with Iraq. Nearly two hundred lives end in the Daegue subway moto in South Korea, not long after in Rhode Island one hundred die in a tamasha gone wrong. British sign language is recognised as an official British language. In Beijing school is cancelled for two weeks due to the SARS virus. An earthquake that kills over two thousand people devastates Algeria. The first voyage kwa Europe to another planet, Mars, is launched. In Mexico, the last ‘old style’ Volkswagen Beetle rolls off the assembly line. A electricity black out that leads sixty percent of London’s underground rail network to a stop hits South East England.


It’s a long way nyumbani my crooked friend
But I do appreciate the time we spent
It’s a long, long way back home
Such a long, long way back home
So close, yet we’ve come so far
So close, still we’ve got so far
-Australia, Gyroscope

And somewhere between the first person to kuvuka, msalaba the Atlantic Ocean in an open-air, wicker basket hot air balloon, and Hokkaido, Japan, being hit kwa an earthquake, another historic moment happened. Historic to us. On the 23rd of September 2003 ‘One mti Hill’ aired for the first time. We didn’t know then but our lives were just altered the slightest.

I was just shy of my fifteenth birthday, and in Australia OTH meant absolutely nothing at that time.

That was over seven years, eights seasons, and about three upendo triangles ago. And here we are, despite it all, hardcore, die-hard, dedicated mashabiki of a ship that for all intent and purposes sank a long time ago.

I want wewe to know that it doesn’t matter
Where we take this road someone’s gotta go
And I want wewe to know wewe couldn’t have loved me better
But I want wewe to songesha on so I’m already gone
-Already Gone, Kelly Clarkson

Why?

Because every now and then a moment stuns us as it happens and we know that this instant is zaidi than a fleeting image, it’s a moment when wewe can look back and say ‘hey, that’s when it all changed’.

"Most of our life is a series of images. They pass us kwa like towns on the highway. But sometimes a moment stuns us as it happens. And we know that this instant is zaidi than a fleeting image. We know that this moment, every part of it, will live on forever.'" -Lucas 316

For all of us it may be different, that first glimpse, that scene that sucks wewe in, it might be right then that wewe fall forever au it may be slower. upendo growing over time until it’s tipped over the edge, one moment, one look, one sentence, and wewe stop, you’ve just become a shipper.

Did we know then how far it would take us? How two characters on a fictional TV onyesha could affect our lives. We see the world slightly different now. We judge love, friendship, hope, in a way me might not have. We’ve talked to people, all over the world, who we would have never crossed paths with otherwise. These meetings, have they changed our lives? Has one conversation with a BLer changed your mind, made wewe late for something, made wewe think for a moment longer? Have they made wewe smile au laugh on a bad day, brought joy where there might not have been.

But I miss screaming and fighting and kissing in the rain
And it’s 2am and I’m cursing your name
You’re so in upendo that wewe act insane
And that’s the way I loved you
Breakin’ down and coming undone
It’s a roller coaster kinda rush
And I never knew I could feel that much
And that’s the way I loved you
-The Way I Loved You, Taylor Swift

Brooke and Lucas, two polar opposites who have something so elemental in common that it’s drawn thousands of mashabiki in. mashabiki who have cried and laughed and gotten angry along with these characters, who fought unseen kwa their side and still fight to this day.

They’ve inspired us, where others have turned their back, where other ships and shippers have failed BL and BLers have survived even in the tragic loss of endgame. But that is what makes BL so beautiful, it’s tragic and real, it’s brutal and honest, it’s emotion stripped naked for us all to see.

They fought and struggled and we watched mesmerised, where some may see the end we see beauty, we see upendo and hope.

This is not what I intended
I always swore to wewe I’d never fall apart
wewe always thought that I was stronger
I may have failed, but I have loved wewe from the start
Oh, but hold your breath
Because tonight will be the night
That I will fall for wewe over again
Don’t make me change my mind
-Fall For You, Secondhand Serenade

You’re waiting for someone
To put wewe together
You’re waiting for someone to push wewe away
There’s always another wound to discover
There’s always something zaidi wewe wish he’d say
-Everything wewe Want, Vertical Horizon

When some saw closure, an end, au a goodbye, we saw a beginning, a sacrifice, a lie.

Because it’s the journey not the destination, sometimes there is no happy ending, upendo isn’t enough, au words are left unsaid until it’s too late. Because sometimes upendo does change, and that doesn’t mean it goes away, that doesn’t make it any less special.

This is the way wewe left me
I’m not pretending
No hope, no love, no glory
No happy ending
This is the way that we love
Like it’s forever
Then live the rest of our life
But not together
Wake up in the morning, stumble on my life
Can’t get no upendo without sacrifice
If anything should happen, I guess I wish wewe well
A little bit of heaven, but a little bit of hell
This is the hardest story that I’ve ever told
No hope, au love, au glory
Happy endings gone forever more
I fell as if I’m wastin’
And I’m wastin’ everyday
-Happy Endings, Mika

There is no endgame for our shabiki base, but that is all right because there is no end for our shabiki base. Our upendo is not swayed; it doesn’t get shoved aside, weakened. We are strong when they cannot be, we see when they are blind, and we hear when they are deaf.

What makes Brucas so special?

There’s some things we don’t talk about
Rather do without
And just hold the smile
Falling in and out of love
Ashamed and proud of
Together all the while
-Never Say Never, The Fray

Because even if it’s just for one night, they make us believe again. Because they may not change the world someday but they changed each other’s world, zaidi than anyone will ever know. They saved each other, from the outside world even if just for a short time, and from themselves. Because they weren’t perfect and that somehow made them perfect, when they cried au screamed au just sat together in silence, they had us gripped. They steal the screen, and they don’t even need words to do it. Just a look, just a glance and it’s there. They aren’t friends, they never were and they never will be just friends, that’s not what they were meant to be but that doesn’t stop them from being a part of each other’s lives. They need each other, without each other they are somehow not them.

Pretty girl is suffering
While he confesses everything
Pretty soon she’ll figure out
wewe can never get him out of your head
It’s the way that he makes wewe cry
It’s the way that he’s in your mind
It’s the way that he makes wewe fall in love
It’s the way that he makes wewe feel
It’s the way that he kisses you
It’s the way that he makes wewe fall in love
-Pretty Girl, Sugarcult

Brucas, Brooke and Lucas together, they epitomise everything ‘One mti Hill’ is. The flaws we all carry, the battle between the right and wrong thing, friendship, love, family, laughter, tears, beauty, art, passion, sacrifice, pain, joy, faith…

In way is it a surprise that without them we believe the onyesha has slipped, wewe take a few things away and suddenly you’re looking at something else all together. That instinctive pull away that has us looking at these characters as if they are strangers, as many of us look at this onyesha and go (there’s no other way I can think to say it) WTF!

wewe strip away at the friendships, at the family, at the simple things like voiceovers, starting credits, and music. It feels different, it looks different, and it is. It leaves an ache where something else use to be, use to fill. Like Lucas filled the ache in Brooke’s heart.

Don’t know what to do anymore
I’ve Lost the only upendo worth fighting for
I’ll drown in my tear storming sea
That would onyesha you, that would make wewe hurt like me
All the same
I don’t want mudslinging games
It’s such a shame
To let wewe walk away
Is there a chance?
A fragment of light at the end of the tunnel?
A reason to fight?
Is there a chance wewe may change your mind?
au are we ashes and wine?
-Ashes and Wine, A Fine Frenzy

I look back at the beginning, way back when, at the people Brooke and Lucas were at the start and then who they walked away as when they parted, that’s one destination I believe as a shabiki base we should be proud of. The knowledge that nobody else will ever do the same thing for these two characters, will never take them on that journey. And its sad when others rub away at all that hard work, all that love, but we’re lucky because we got to experience it all with them and fall in upendo with them too. And nobody can ever take that away, au erase the impact one couple could leave on us. We’ll carry that forever, we’ll carry them forever.

When my time comes
Forget the wrong that I’ve done
Help me leave behind some
Reasons to be missed
Don’t resent me
And when you’re feeling empty
Keep me in your memory
Leave out all the rest
-Leave out all the Rest, Linkin Park