At 3:23 AM on July 30, eighty five chapters, 308,000 words, and eight months later, Our Universe has finally come to a close.

And for a second time, at 1:10 AM on June 11, Our Universe came to a close again.

I cannot believe how far this has gone. This whole adventure started out as a needed distraction from the global pandemic, a fun way to express my harry obsession and my love for writing. I never thought that I would gain as much as I have from it.

I have grown so much since I've written The Lucky One. Not only my writing, but as a person. This journey has increased my confidence in my abilities as a writer, my creativity, my motivation, and my overall mood. I was in a pretty difficult place when I began writing these fics. Writing helped me deal with all the emotions I was feeling, and seeing people actually reading what I was writing. Reading and voting and commenting, well, that made me feel a little less alone.

While The Lucky One was where it all began, Our Universe holds a very special place in my heart. This is for a lot of reasons, one being that when I was writing The Lucky One, I needed it tore like this picture perfect fairy tale love story. I needed to write all the fluff and lovey dovey stuff, and I needed that happy ending. That was for me. Whereas, Our Universe, I got to explore real character development. Real human relationships, that are messy and complicated, and realizing that that's okay.

Everyone's a little broken somehow. In today's world there are a bunch of people telling women what to be and how to act, and don't be insecure, be confident. Love your body, love yourself. Sometimes that's really really hard. Sometimes we wish we had thinner thighs or thicker thighs, or we wish our hair was longer, our nose was smaller. Sometimes we cry when a pair of jeans doesn't fit like it's supposed to. Sometimes we don't like what we see when we look in a mirror. And all of a sudden, we're insecure about being insecure.

Insecurity is a natural part of life, it's okay not to love yourself all the time. As long as you respect and accept yourself for who you are. It's okay to have bad days and good days too. Watching Juniper slowly gain confidence, become more at home in herself, well that is what I find most important in this story. Sometimes she feels insecure, jealous, sorry for herself. She's not perfect. Juniper is human, and that's the best part about her.

Each of these characters mean so much to me, all made up of important people in my life. People often ask me as a writer, do you write your main character based off yourself? The short answer is, no. Do bits of me sneak in? Of course. But in truth, the character I'm most like is Rory. 

Juniper is a combination of my friend and everything I wish I could be. Victoire is the coolest human being I know, and my favorite person to make pasta with. Vivian is proof that best friends grow apart, and that's natural. Maybe you aren't as close anymore, but you'll always share the memories. Leo and Charlie are both based off of my older brother, annoying, but always there for me. Evelyn is my favorite English teacher and Vanessa and Rose have my little sister's spunk and attitude.

Teddy is entirely my own creation, with a little Logan Huntzberger, Remus Lupin, and a sprinkle of Sirius Black thrown in. James— well, James is obviously inspired by the original James Potter, my absolute favorite Marauder. Besides Lily, of course, who also inspired Rory's character. But actually, most of James's character is based off the best guy I know.

My best friend, who I could not have gotten through this without. Thank you for laughing at my jokes and telling me that the chapter is fine and I don't need to delete it. Thank you for always supporting me and being my number one cheerleader. For making sure I eat and sleep, and drag me out of my house spontaneously for a road trip when I have major writer's block. And although you'll never catch me saying this again, I love you, man. I can't imagine James as anyone else.

Now, I'm sure some of you are saying, hey, wait a minute, if he's James, and you're most like Rory...? PUMP THE BRAKES! Our relationship with each other does not reflect theirs. At all. Although our relationship is written into the fic, it is represented by Rory and Teddy, not Rory and James. In fact, several of our real life conversations made it in to the story.

As I wrap this author's note to a close, I have to thank the readers. THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! Everytime a comment pops up in my notifications I smile so large it practically splits my face open. Because oh my god people like it, people care about these characters  like I do, and oh my god they think my writing is funny and good! Especially you, formerly inschamberofsecrets, you have been here since the beginning. Your rants are unmatched. So, thank you the most. Thank you for caring.

I LOVE EACH AND EVERYONE ONE OF YOU

for the final time,

MWAH!

xoxo,

colleen