Sofía

Before the Stranger Things finale, before everything blew up, before the chaos—there was Byler. And I was there. Not casually. Not “oh I like this ship” and move on. No. I was deep in it. I’m talking 12 to 18 years old, every single day, all day. Tumblr wasn’t just an app, it was basically my second brain. I woke up and checked it. I went to school and still checked it. If I mentioned Byler to someone, I already had a tab open to prove my point.

It wasn’t just a phase, it was a whole era of my life.

And then the ending happened.

People processed it immediately. First week, first month, even now—everyone has something to say. Some are still angry, some moved on, some turned it into jokes. And me?

I just… didn’t come back.

I didn’t make a dramatic exit. I didn’t post a goodbye. I just stopped opening Tumblr. Not completely—I’ve posted maybe two or three things, reblogged something here and there. But every time I get a notification, I feel this weird… block. Like my brain goes “nope, not today.”

The funny thing is, I can’t even uninstall the app.

Because somehow it feels like I’d be deleting something way too personal. Like I’d be erasing a version of myself that lived and breathed Byler for years. And yeah, I know how that sounds. But if you’ve ever loved something this intensely, you get it.

I’ve had friends who cried. Readers from my Wattpad who told me they were genuinely heartbroken, but still found comfort in the things I wrote. And then there’s me, just… here. Not crying, not ranting, not moving on either.

I don’t know if it’s denial or shock or just my brain protecting itself.

All I know is: I’m still not ready.

And the reason I’m even posting this is because I just got another Tumblr notification and it hit me all over again.

So if you see this, if you interact with it, if you reblog—

I probably won’t.

I’m disappearing again. Maybe for another three months. Maybe more.

Not because I don’t care.

And honestly? I get it. I really do.

But I can’t relate.

Because I cannot imagine my life without shipping Mike Wheeler and Will Byers.

Since 2020, life hasn’t exactly been kind to me. Those weren’t the easiest years. Not even close.

But they were the most beautiful years to be part of this fandom.

The Byler fandom gave me something I didn’t know I needed — comfort, creativity, connection, softness in a world that often felt unbearably loud.

The fanfics. The fanarts. The edits. The discussions that went on for hours like we were decoding the universe itself.

It was never just a ship.

Somewhere along the way, Byler became a space where I rediscovered my love for writing — a love I had buried under insecurity, doubt, and the quiet fear of not being “good enough.”

I talked about them endlessly. To friends. To family. To anyone who would listen.

Mike and Will were never just characters on a screen to me. They were emotion. Possibility. A story that felt like it mattered.

Am I sad? God, yes.

What happened — or rather, what didn’t happen — still hurts.

But if I could go back in time and choose again?

I would still ship them.

Every single time.

Because loving Byler gave me joy during years that could have easily been defined only by pain.

And now that Stranger Things is over, something strange and beautiful has happened:

They’re ours.

Not in a possessive way — but in the way stories always become the audience’s once the screen goes dark.

We know who our Mike Wheeler is. We know who our Will Byers is.

And in thousands of fics, artworks, and headcanons… they are loved the way many of us wished they had been.

Byler was never just about “going canon.”

It was about connection. About seeing something tender and holding onto it. About finding pieces of ourselves inside a story.

Maybe I’ll be more cautious in the future. Maybe I won’t let myself believe so deeply again unless the story is explicitly, undeniably queer.

But I will never regret loving them.

Because Byler, to me, was never just a ship that could have been.

It was a feeling. A refuge. A chapter of my life I’ll always carry with me.

I’ve seen so many angry comments. I’ve reposted all of them because I genuinely identify with every single one. I even wanted to make my own comment, from a place of frustration about everything that happened. But I think it all really comes down to this: I feel a deep sadness, mixed with a kind of detachment and emptiness.

Because there’s nothing sadder than ending up hating something you once loved—something that, in a way, was a safe place for you for so many years.

Since I was 12, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, Stranger Things was that safe place for me. I built my account around it, around Byler. And I always knew that if Byler didn’t become canon, I would be devastated. But one thing is that pain—and another completely different thing is feeling like everything was ruined.

Because yes, it hurts not to see Byler together. But it also hurts to see how my favorite character, Mike, ends up. It hurts to see Will’s ending. It hurts to see the ending of almost everything. It’s all so frustrating.