After a five – and some would argue six – year endeavor came to its closing chapter Sunday, and with it, it raised an issue people deal with in their everyday lives.

“Breaking Bad,” a show beginning in 2008, ended Sunday. The show captivated audiences for five years – or six, if you count the last half of the fifth season as a separate season.

The central character, Walter White, finds himself diagnosed with lung cancer and unable to provide for his family. Taking his skills as a chemistry teacher, White begins to cook meth with his former student, Jesse Pinkman.

As millions of people tuned in each week to see the newest exploits of White and Pinkman, they became enthralled in the dangerous, the dramatic and the damaged world of these characters.

At the surface, “Breaking Bad” is a story about a man trying to provide for his family, as if that were his driving motivation.

But that’s only at the surface.

Delving deeper into “Breaking Bad,” viewers can find an outlet with White and his drug-cooking alter ego Heisenberg. And it’s not the villainous one.

White cooks meth not because of a need to provide for his family – he has plenty of opportunities to do so. It’s not because of a lack of resources White begins his first cook and continues on. No – it’s because of resentment.

Resentment slithers through White’s veins like a vicious, poisonous snake. This resentment is unleashed after the cancer diagnosis and set loose on the world.

His resentment comes from friends who have done him wrong, past experiences and just generally being down-ridden his entire life.

While most people do not harbor resentment to the point of White, it is a real thing people deal with.

Bad things happen in life. People betray others. Bad luck is inevitable. It’s how we deal with these things that make it important.

Nothing in life is going to be perfect, just as everything is not going to be imperfect. You could have the best weekend possible but still remember that homework assignment you have due at 8 a.m. Monday.

Obviously, White is an extreme case of letting the bad get to a point where violence, danger and just outright absurdity are a thing. But he is a great example to see how it affects us.

White, a man so beaten to the ground by the people around him, he has to justify cooking and selling meth as an excuse because of his cancer. But in reality, it just let the bad get to him.

People need an outlet – whether it is friends, a journal (or I guess blog, since it’s the 21st century) or to just scream into your pillow.

White didn’t break bad; he just let the bad come out in the worst way possible.

Bob Galuski is a senior English and journalism major. He can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].