And that, kids, is how I met your mother.

Aunt Lilly was half right. It was a long road. You might even say it was really really really really long. But difficult? Nah. It was life. Stuff happens in life. Things fall apart, things get put back together. When I think how lucky I am to wake up next to your mom every morning, I can’t help but be amazed at how easy it all really was. All I had to do was to get out of the apartment for a couple of hours so uncle Marshall could propose to aunt Lilly. Go to the bar. Meet your aunt Robin. Convince your aunt Robin to fall in love with me. Break up with your aunt Robin. Go on a rebound. Go get a rebound tattoo. Go get the rebound tattoo removed. Meet Stella. Convince Stella to fall in love with me. Get engaged. Get left at the altar. Get fired. Get beat up by a goat. Get a job as a professor. Teach the wrong class. Date the wrong girl. Date the wrong girl again. Date the wrong girl a few times actually. Let uncle Barney fall in love with aunt Robin. Let aunt Robin fall in love with uncle Barney. Book the wedding band. Go to their wedding. Make sure the wedding actually happened. Leave a little early. Be in the right place in the right time. And somehow, summon the guts to do the stupidest, most impossible thing in the world. Walk up to that beautiful girl standing under the yellow umbrella and start talking.

How I Met Your Mother (2014), Alternate Ending.