It’s so strange to say it, but LOST is over. What a ride it’s been.

It would be impossible to capture the legacy of a television show like this one in one single article or note, so I won’t try. It’s a legacy that should be experienced rather than read about; that said, I’ve been a bit speechless regarding LOST’s series finale that aired Sunday night, so I thought I’d just write down a few general musings on the show as a whole. No spoilers.

The way I see it, LOST had three moments throughout its six-year history that went the distance to set the show apart from anything we’ve ever seen or ever will see on television.

The first was September 22, 2004, the day the show’s pilot episode, aptly titled “Pilot,” aired in the United States for the first time. This was the first time we met characters like Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Locke and Hurley, and was also our introduction to long-running island mysteries like the Monster and the famous polar bear.

It was the beginning of a television show that would capture our hearts and, most importantly, our imaginations, for years to come. It was expertly written and directed, and was one of very few shows that hooked me in an instant. Best of all, it was just the beginning.

The second moment came on May 7, 2007. LOST was a few weeks away from my all-time favorite episode, season three’s finale “Through the Looking Glass,” and many questions were burning in the minds of fans everywhere. One of these questions pertained to when the show would end.

Executive Producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse announced on that day that LOST would end in 2010. I remember breathing an epic sigh of relief upon hearing that news. LOST had been a well-established show for a couple of years at that time, but many fans feared it was perhaps too popular for its own good. No true LOST fan wanted ABC or the show’s producers to let the story outlive itself.

This announcement showed us that, like any good book or movie, LOST did indeed have an ending. The showrunners knew when that was, and they had a roadmap to accomplishing what they wanted to with the show’s narrative.

That leads us to the final, and perhaps most important moment in LOST’s six-year history: the (again) aptly titled series finale, “The End,” which aired Sunday night.

“The End” was the most satisfying conclusion I could have ever imagined for my favorite television show of all time.

Prior to watching the finale, I actually sat down and compiled a list of all the LOST mysteries I wanted explained. I even marked the ones I knew would not be explained. I intended to publish a lengthy article, with this list included, on Facebook and on my blog the day after the finale aired. Basically, I planned on outlining my many frustrations with my favorite show, because I was positive they’d only grow after seeing the finale.

In a lot of ways, Allison Janney’s quote from the third-to-last LOST episode (“Across the Sea”) is the perfect summary of these frustrations:

"Every question I answer will simply lead to another question.”

LOST was a show that kept its cards close to the chest. We rarely learned the answers to our questions, and when we did, more mysteries came out of those answers. It was an often-frustrating experience, but also one that managed to keep me coming back week after week.

Flash forward to Sunday night. After watching the show’s final scenes, I sat speechless, trying to fathom what I had just seen. I’m still processing it, but I knew one thing for certain: the people behind LOST had accomplished their goal.

My list seemed ridiculous after watching “The End.” The episode, above all else, showed us that LOST was a show about characters. Sometimes we loved them, sometimes we hated them, and we often even related to them.

I’ll admit that I still have questions that will probably never be answered, but “The End” managed to be such a high caliber finale that I actually forgot most of those questions for a time. The ins and outs of the Island no longer mattered quite as much as they once had; it was just the people and their journeys.

We won’t ever see another new episode of LOST again, and there will not be a movie, but discussion about the show will continue for a long, long time, which is a fact I’m very excited about. Much like the original Star Wars trilogy, LOST will live on along with its fans.

So, on that note, it’s time to say “goodbye” to the show, and “namaste” to something entirely new: the show’s legacy.