“I made a choice to hear my voice, a story that is mine. Even through the darkness I will make my way to find my once upon a time.” Once Upon A Time, Music and Lyrics by Layne Stein and Tony Wakim, PattyCake Productions

Every so often, a TV show comes along at the exact time we need it most. For me, that show was Once Upon A Time (OUAT), which this past weekend celebrated its 10-year anniversary. The year was 2011, and I had just turned 30. The reason that’s significant isn’t so much the number itself, but because I made a promise to myself as I began my thirties to focus on moving forward and no longer dwell on things from my past I couldn’t change.

My early thirties were also enveloped in a darkness created by my anxiety and depression and retreating to the fictional town of Storybrooke was one of the moments in my week I looked forward to most. Over the years, I’ve read so many comments from people all over the world that are similar to mine, about how a show whose premise was “what would it look like if the Evil Queen got her happy ending?” helped them get through some of the most significant challenges of their lives. One reason for this comes down to something Regina Mills says at the end of the series, in that no matter what we face, “we can get past it all, with hope.”

From the first episode to the final one, Regina Mills/The Evil Queen/The Good Queen, played by the incomparable Lana Parrilla goes through transformational character development, and it’s her character that I connected to most. In her narrative I saw my own story, and the chapter that resonated with me most is when she finally learns to love herself, and all the parts of herself she previously thought were broken. If I had to describe part of the first half of my 30s, I would echo this same trajectory.

Like Regina, once I said “I love myself” and came to realize that what I once thought made me broken is actually part of what makes me special and contributes to the legacy I want to leave in the world, so many things changed for me. This is part of the beauty of powerful storytelling, and today I resonate so strongly with loving myself and unapologetically being myself.

At its core, OUAT explored the concepts of good and evil, dark and light, and the complexities of what defines a villain and what defines a hero, not just as opposites, but as qualities we each possess. It’s how we choose which of these to embrace that defines who we are. Through characters like Regina, Hook, Gold, Zelena and Cora, OUAT showed the power that exists in people’s capacity to change and to learn from their mistakes. OUAT explored very human emotions that we all experience, and that are so important to our world – what it means to love, to forgive, to listen, and to understand stories and different perspectives.

Perhaps most importantly, what I take away from OUAT besides the importance of hope is that in our lives it’s not about having “happily ever after” or a “happy ending” but all the moments we experience along the way, and many many happy beginnings. As Regina also comments, “I hate endings because it means your story’s done, and everyone here, well, their stories are far from over.”

I couldn’t agree more, and my story? There’s so much more to come!