Ok. This weekend I went to the Palace West for the Star Trek Movie Marathon. I only saw 2, 3, 4, and 6. I was tempted to see Generations and wanted to see First Contact on the big screen again, but I had Dungeons & Dragons on Sunday and they're not playing at good times during the week. I'd never seen 1, 3, 4, 5, or 6 on the big screen, so this was a treat.
What I noticed the most though was the fathers and sons and even fathers and daughters that came out. It was not a sold out show by far, but the people who were there enjoyed themselves. I saw people I hadn't seen in a while and shared laughs with total strangers.
It all clicked for me again. I remembered why I became a fan in the first place. I remember watching Star Trek II on the TV with dad for the first time. I remember coming home from grade school and catching reruns of the original series. I remembered watching new episodes and reruns of Next Generation and Deep Space Nine every night before going to sleep.
I wouldn't have been interested in science, math, and computers if it weren't for Star Trek. They were common interests shared with my brother, Kyle. They connected me with Kurt, my best friend in high school. They were also common interests shared with other classmates like Lisa, Erik, Zach... all of whom I considered friends at one time or another.
In fact Star Trek is the link in the chain that led me to my current group of friends. The joy I got from being a fan of Star Trek is why I joined the USS Jeanette Maddox, a Wichita Star Trek club that does volunteer work, fund raising, and just gets together once a month to talk. I'm normally a shy person, but the common connection of being a fan is what enabled me to push past it and send the e-mail asking to join.
In that club I met Roman and Rolando. Roman then got me to go to a Living Greyhawk game day. For those of you who don't know what that is it's a worldwide game of Dungeons and Dragons. The company that makes the game puts out free adventures set in the world that anyone can run and play in. Locally you'll get together 7 people (6 players and 1 dungeon master) and play one of the adventures at the game day. The adventures tell an overall story and at the same time your character builds up his or her history based on the games that you played and their outcome. It's dice and paper and pencils and math (lots of math) and people talking in funny ways with funny accents and (at least with the people I play with) plenty of locker room humor and phases with double meaning.
Anyway I continued playing in Living Greyhawk game days where I met Mason, Tom, John, Eric, Clint, Dave and many, many more. From there Mason (by way of Rolando's free invite) helped get me in to Tom's game (which has since become Tom and John's game) where I met Rick, Chris, Bryan, and Kirk. Now we get together at least every other Sunday to play a game, tell jokes, and just have fun.
My fandom has diminished over the years. I am in no way a crazy trekkie, but still I'm amazed at how much Star Trek had an impact on my life. If I hadn't sent that e-mail to the Maddox I doubt I would have as many good friends as I have now. In fact everyone I've tagged in some way I met or got to know better because of Star Trek (and these are just the ones on facebook).
Star Trek helped bring people into my life in a positive way and has always inspired me to impact other people’s lives in a positive way. That is a testament to Gene Roddenberry and his dream of the future.
So now I'm waiting with anticipation for May 7th, 2009 at 7pm when the next Star Trek movie will hit the big screen. I'm a bit more excited then I was last week, and even more happy that I have friends that I'm going with. And who knows I may even make a few more friends standing in line at the theater. And to think it's all because of a TV show... fascinating.
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