Good morning, Hank.

It's Tuesday. I've said those words on video something like 1200 times in the last 17 years.

And you've said, "Good morning, John", even more often because you've taken fewer vacations. But just to state the obvious, I'm not always gonna be saying, Good morning, Hank. It's Tuesday.

Because everything ends. Or at least everything that we've observed seems to end. I'm gonna look at this through two metaphorical lenses.

That of the professional athlete, but first that of the television show. Most TV shows last for, like, one or two seasons. Grey's Anatomy has been around for 19 years, making it about a year and a half older than vlogbrothers.

Law and Order SVU has been on the air for 25 years. But those are exceptions. Even very successful shows often don't last that long.

Friends lasted ten seasons. The Office - nine. The West Wing - eight.

Everything ends. And not only that, I would argue everything should end. So there's been a lot of attention on Youtuber retirements this year, which I think is basically good news.

Like in a very new medium, we need to figure out how people say goodbye, or at least how they say goodbye to this, or how they say goodbye for a while. But, Hank, you and I have been on YouTube long enough to know this isn't exactly new. Like, most successful creators of their moment move on from making YouTube videos.

In fact, of the crop of featured creators at the first ever VidCon in 2010, almost none of them today make their living on YouTube. People move on from the platform to other opportunities, or their audiences shrink to the point where it's no longer fulfilling to make videos or whatever else. Things end, and having a show that runs for seven or eight seasons is not some failure or tragedy.

It's a tremendous success. In the comments of Tom Scott's last video, I wrote, “Congrats, Tom.” And a lot of people replied, “Why would you congratulate him on stopping making videos?” I guess I wanted to congratulate him because, of course, it was a carefully considered decision and the right decision for him, but also because he finished. He finished his run of ten years of weekly videos.

He completed the project. And this brings me to my second metaphor, professional athletics. So most pro athletes play between one and four seasons before retiring.

A few get ten. Very few end up like Tom Brady, playing for 23 seasons. Hank, in this metaphor, you and I are in that lucky few who are able to hang around for many years in the league.

But of course, just to state the obvious, we are not Tom Brady. Mr. Beast is Tom Brady.

And I wish him so much luck with that. It seems like a very, very stressful job. We are like second string offensive linemen who are kind of personality hires.

Like, we're good in the locker room and so we're allowed to hang around. But we've managed to stay in the league since 2007, which is amazing and most amazing of all, we still love it here. I do think a lot about how vlogbrothers will end.

I mean, maybe it will end in death. And I guess I would be okay with that if this became like an archive of what two people were thinking and experiencing while they were both here. That said, I'm not convinced that vlogbrothers' ideal ending would be death.

I think the ideal ending is that, like Tom Scott, we complete the project. I just don't know exactly what completing the project looks like. I used to think it looked like finishing Brotherhood 2.0 on December 31, 2007.

I used to think that it looked like finishing the maternal center of excellence. But I didn't feel finished on December 31, 2007. And frankly, I don't feel finished now.

Because I do think and worry about this a lot. I talk with my friends a lot about it, and I have a friend who's a recently retired professional athlete. And so I asked him, like, how did you know it was time?

And he told me, “The game tells you when you're done. I love the game so much and I respect it. And it told me when I was done.” Hank, we're in our 18th season of vlogbrothers, and I would be lying if I told you thought this was the first half of the project.

But I love this YouTube game. I respect it and it hasn't told me I'm done yet. It seems to me like the game still has a use for us.

So, I'll see you on Friday.