Thirty-one years ago, something incredible happened that changed my life forever in ways I couldn't possibly have known at 9 years of age.
A brand new movie called Star Wars premiered, and my life was never the same after that.
Three years later, twenty-eight years ago, the saga continued with the sequel, called The Empire Strikes Back, and three years after that, Return of the Jedi was released. Twenty-five years ago.
I continue to be astounded that I can actually recall things that happened two and a half decades ago.
The coolest thing happened with Return of the Jedi. I got to see it on the day it premiered. I didn't think that would happen for me. I knew the line at the theater would be way long, and I was in school all day, so I couldn't get up early and go reserve a place in line for the 7:00 showing. Then, a friend and I called the theater and found out that the movie would be shown around 4:00 p.m., as well, which was not advertised in the local newspaper. Nobody knew there'd be a showing that early. We got in, easily.
As we left, the line to get into the theater, a small two-screener on Broadway in Tyler, Texas, that doesn't exist anymore, went around the building and down the street. So cool to see so many people wanting to see that movie. So cool that I had already seen it.
Star Wars and its sequels, its story, influenced my life in a lot of ways. For one thing, I wanted to emulate Princess Leia. She was one tough broad who didn't take any shit from anyone, and I wanted to be like that. I was attending a very cliquish Christian school at the time, and not a day went by that I wasn't ridiculed in some way. I told myself to take it like Leia would, with my head held high, knowing that I was above those people who found it so delicious to be cruel to me, to make fun of me on a daily basis.
In later years, I realized how that movie and the concepts it illustrates began to inspire me to think differently, to understand things in a way that eventually propelled me out of the religion of my upbringing and into a different way of seeing the world. Obviously, there were other influences on my life, but Star Wars definitely provided the foundation.
I made good friends because of my interest in those films, and it also became a bond that reinforced my already strong relationship with my little brother. My older brother used to disparage my devotion to all things Star Wars, snidely snapping at me, "It's just a movie."
Oh, no. Not just a movie at all.
Copyright 2008 Melissa LaFavers