Nina Dobrev Announces Exit from The Vampire Diaries

"I always knew that I wanted Elena's story to be a six season adventure," says actress Nina Dobrev in the announcement of her exit after the season six finale of The Vampire Diaries and let me tell you, I am torn. This Instagram post is what I woke up to this morning, along with a few Tumblr posts saying "RIP TVD." It's not a sudden thing, I know. Ever since Nina talked about wanting to get out of acting as a high school student, there's been buzz about how much longer she was actually going to stay.

But still I can't seem to wrap my head around Elena, the main character of the series of books by LJ Smith, and one of the three main characters of the TV series, not being in the show anymore. Is it possible for the series to actually go on without the character the series revolves around? I know that the producer, Julie Plec, says that the departure of Dobrev isn't going to effect the plans for the renewed season seven, but I still can't imagine it going on. I really can't.
Okay, so I've probably said this a million times by now. Especially with this show, I've always hit points where I've thought that there was no way they could recover, that there was no way I was going to go back for more. Except, I always have, after Jenna died, after Alaric died, after Jeremy died, after Damon died, after Kathrine took over Elena's body and, you know, so on. But, I can't help but feel that this time is different.
I'm chilled with Dobrev's statement about how nothing in TVD is quite what it seems. But, I think I'm more chilled by the fact that she's always known it was going to be a six season adventure. I feel kind of betrayed, you know? I've dedicated myself to this show, and to Nina as an actress, I watched her and supported her as Mia Jones when she was on Degrassi, and followed her straight through TVD. But, now I feel like she was just setting me up to tear me down. She decided that this was how it was going to go but no fans were aware in the slightest.
I want to applaud her for deciding to move on, I really do. I just can't. As a fan of the show and her acting on this specific show, I'm hurt. I think she's done an amazing job as Elena Gilbert, and I truly could not see another person filling those shoes. She's had to do so much for the part, including acting the part of four separate people in just one episode. Honestly, she's an amazing actress. I don't know how that'll carry over to her next role, but I know she's done such a good job with this role that I am truly devastated that it's going to be over so soon.

I wish her the best on her future endeavors, but I wish she would've followed this series through. I can't wait to see the fate of this show now. Fingers crossed that they find something to fill the gap.