Good-byes are never easy. For fan*s, saying good-bye to a favorite television show can be especially difficult. You come to love these characters and then, suddenly, they’re gone. And not every canceled series gets a theatrical film like Serenity or Veronica Mars. More often, you will never be able to see your favorite characters starring in new material again.

Fan*s are used to heartbreak. We’ve survived the cancellation of Firefly, and we’re stronger than ever. That doesn’t make it any easier to say good-bye when a beloved character dies, or our favorite shows get canceled, or the creators decide it’s just time to end the run.

While this has been a good year for fan*s as far as shows returning from the dead — Veronica Mars opened in theaters last week, a new season of 24 will be starting in just a couple months, and NBC recently announced a revival of Heroes — we’ll also be saying good-bye to several long-running series.

We all know How I Met Your Mother will be ending its run in less than two weeks. After nine years of listening to Ted’s story, we’ll finally get to see how he met the mother. However, there are several other shows ending within the next month or so that also happen to be favorites of mine.

One of my favorite supernatural dramas, Being Human, originated in the United Kingdom and was followed by an American adaptation that premiered in the United States several years ago. The show follows a ghost, a werewolf, and a vampire trying to live together and have a normal life. The original BBC version ended its run last year, after a complete cast changeover. One of the original leads went off on a quest to the Lonely Mountain, and the other two leads left the series shortly after that. Syfy recently announced this season would be the last for the American adaptation, which, after a rocky first season, had found its legs and was able to develop a mythology independent of the original series.

Syfy has also announced the cancellation of Warehouse 13, which will commence its fifth and final season (of only six episodes) next month. Warehouse 13 follows U.S. Secret Service agents who seek out historical objects with often dangerous powers. Warehouse 13 and Being Human are among the last of a generation of original Syfy series that began with Eureka in 2006. The network has been adding more reality TV and imported Canadian series to its schedule and cutting back on their original scripted entertainment.

Side note: Keep an eye out for Australian import The Almighty Johnsons, which stars Dean O’Gorman from The Hobbit and should start airing on SyFy sometime in late 2014 or early 2015. It’s a great show about reincarnated Norse gods living in modern-day New Zealand.

However, my sadness over the departure of the series I’ve mentioned so far is nothing compared to how much I am going to miss the USA dramedy Psych. For the uninitiated, Psych is about two best friends who run a “psychic” detective agency, the catch being that Shawn Spencer isn’t a real psychic. He uses his eidetic memory and powers of deduction to solve cases in over-the-top and hilarious ways. His best friend and partner in the business, Burton “Gus” Guster, spends his days working for a pharmaceutical company and deals with Shawn’s shenanigans in his free time. The show stars James Roday as Shawn and DulÇ Hill as Gus.

Shawn and Gus will be solving their last case this Wednesday with the Santa Barbara Police Department. While brainstorming ideas for this column, I thought of a lot of ways I could commemorate the end of Psych — a countdown of my favorite episodes, favorite guest stars, favorite nicknames Shawn gave Gus — but I had a really hard time restricting myself to one of those topics, or even being able to list my favorites — there’s just so much about this show to love.

Over the years, Shawn and Gus have solved a number of unusual cases. Some of my favorites included a mummy, dinosaur bones, a spelling bee, an American Idol-like music competition, and even the investigation of a sea lion’s murder. But some of Psych’s more bizarre cases — and their best episodes — are tributes to other pop culture icons.

“Tuesday the 17th” was not only an homage to Friday the 13th but slasher films in general. The episode was directed by Roday and remains one of my favorites to this day. “Dual Spires” was a tribute to cult favorite Twin Peaks and another one of the series’ greatest achievements. The episode guest stars many of the former Twin Peaks cast — Ray Wise, Sherilyn Fenn, Dana Ashbrook, and Sheryl Lee, among others — and follows the investigation of a body found on the lake shore of a quirky town. Just before Christmas, Psych debuted “Psych: The Musical,” a two-hour musical special complete with numerous returning guest stars and original songs.

Last season’s “100 Clues” was an homage to the 1985 film Clue, and also included three of that movie’s cast members, Martin Mull, Christopher Lloyd, and Lesley Ann Warren, along with a guest appearance by Curt Smith of the English new wave band Tears for Fears (not his first appearance on the show). The episode also allowed viewers to vote on the ending of the episode, choosing who they wanted to be the murderer. The U.S. East Coast and West Coast each chose its own ending.

Psych has had a lot of great guest stars over the years, beyond the Twin Peaks and Clue cast. Cybill Shepherd plays Shawn’s mom in several episodes, and Ernie Hudson and Phylicia Rashad have appeared multiple times as Gus’ parents. The original Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Kristy Swanson, first made her appearance in an episode centered around vampires, and she currently recurs as Detective Carlton Lassiter’s wife. William Shatner has appeared several times as Detective Juliette O’Hara’s father. Other guest stars have included John Cena, Jane Lynch, Judd Nelson, Stacy Keibler, George Takei, Danny Glover, Tim Curry, Cary Elwes, Jaleel White, Ally Sheedy, and the list goes on.

I have been a fan of this series from day one. Some people may think it’s strange to get emotionally attached to a TV series, but let’s face it, fan*s do it all the time. Psych is one of those shows I could count on to cheer me up no matter how bad I was feeling at any given point in time. During the summer I spent working a job I hated, the silliness of Psych and Glee kept me going.

I struggled for a while with how to write this column. I knew I wanted to say good-bye to Psych, but it quickly became clear that I’m just not ready. Saying good-bye to a favorite TV show is like saying good-bye to a good friend: the truth is, we’ll never truly be ready to say good-bye for the last time. Fortunately, with shows like Psych, we’ll still have DVDs we can pop in the player to help us remember the good times. And, if we’re lucky, this won’t really be the last time we see Shawn and Gus.

Thank you, Psych, for introducing me to the delicious flavor of Quatro Quesos Dos Fritos, but most importantly, thank you for all the memories, the laughter, the tears, the tears from laughter — thank you for all the good times.

I’ll always think of you whenever I spot a pineapple.