Sometimes the pop culture we love just teens hits differently in retrospect.

Maybe it's a tabloid story we couldn't get enough of or an illicit student-teacher relationship

on our favorite show. We're Suzy Banna-Karim and Jessica Bennett,

posts of the new podcast in retrospect, where each week we'll revisit a cultural moment from

the past that shaped us and probably you to try to understand what it taught us about the world

and our place in it. You're the first person that I've talked to about this for years and years.

Listen to in retrospect on the iHeartRadio app Apple Podcasts or wherever you find your favorite shows.

Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio.

Good morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.

Today's tip is to plan a closing ceremony. When you know a chapter of your life is coming to an end,

do something to mark that end. That moment for reflection can make life feel more rich and full.

So as country singer Brad Paisley sings in his song, there is a last time for everything,

but we don't always know when that last time is happening. Maybe it's waking up at 5 a.m. to see

what Santa brought. There will come a year when your kids don't do that, but you don't know for sure

when they are doing it one particular Christmas morning, that that will be the last early Christmas

morning. And the next year, they will be big enough to sleep in. Many of us have said goodbye to

relatives, assuming we were saying goodbye for a little bit. Not forever, in this world at least,

but life can change quickly. We can't always know when something is the last time.

But for some things, we do know. When you graduate from an institution, you are ending your time

there as a student. That is why we have a big ceremony to mark the moment. When you leave a job,

you often do something to mark the end of your tenure, particularly if you've been there for a while.

Those are big, obvious endings, but even many smaller endings represent real change in a life.

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