A year ago, my school was participating in a national writing contest called Scholastic. Everyone was required to write and submit a peice. At first, I started writng a short fiction story, but that was failing miserably, so I scraped that. So as I sat in Study Hall with nothing to do and two days to write something- anything, I found my self writing about Star Wars. It ended up getting an honerable mention and was published in the school paper. Oh, and as you read this, do keep in mind I was writing to a non-Star Wars audience. Things like a girl liking Star Wars tend to be considered next to blasphemous. Here it Is:



Turning to the Light Side
A galaxy far, far away... from a girl's point of view



Rule number one: I love Star Wars. I have since I was in fourth grade. I probably always will. But I'm different. First of all, I'm a girl. (How many girls do you know who like Star Wars?) Second, most Star Wars fans have the same old story:" I saw Star Wars when it first came out in the Seventies, (Alas, I am only in Middle school, so I cannot say that for myself) and I've loved it ever since!" Never heard that one before.
My story is a bit more interesting. I owe it to a Pez dispenser. Oh, and my annoying little brother, Eric. You see, it started out as a regular December day. I was in fourth grade, so my class still did Christmas gift exchanges. As usual, it was the day before the party when my memory, (very slow) finally decided to tip me off. Mom piled Eric, my sister, Ali, and me into our hideously ugly plumb purple van, and we drove off to the life saver of a store: Five Below. My sister and I meandered (and sometimes bumbled like complete idiots) around the store searching out the shop's incredibly cheap (yet somehow "necessary") trinkets. Ali made a beeline to the hottest, most stylish new make up (Yuck!!) the store had to offer. I, on the other hand, headed straight for the art supplies and cheap-o books. My brother, being the shy kid he is in public, rooted himself next to Mom. When all the shopping was through, we went to the check-out line. There it was. The thing that would eventually start me down the path of a Jedi: A special edition Pez dispenser with the be-helmeted (is that a word?) noggin of Jango Fett sitting proudly on top. My brother saw it, and a light went on. His eyes glued, he said to Mom, "Mom, can I get that Pez dispenser?"
Mom replied in the usual manner of, "Do you have money?"
"Yes."
With a sigh, and something about having too much junk (as if!) she gave in. My brother bought the thing.
The little Pez dispenser set my brother on a conquest. He didn't know a thing about Star Wars, but he was determined to learn. Besides, it looked cool, and the characters had guns and laser swords and flew around blowing things up in their spaceships, and for a little boy, that's all that matters. I, however, was still lost. I didn't really get what it was about. It didn't click. My brother got Dad to go out and rent the first Star wars ever made, a New Hope. It still didn't click. It was cool and all, but no click. Over Christmas vacation, we saw the Empire Strikes back. Still no click. A few days after Christmas, we watched the Return of the Jedi. The big rusty wheel of Star Wars fandom (word?) sitting in the vast space of my mind that would eventually be teeming with Star Wars, gave a jerk. We had seen the Original Trilogy, but I was still clickless. Then we moved on to the Prequels.
Sometime in January, we watched Episode I, the Phantom menace, and the fandom wheel began to turn. Now my friend, that is not the same as a click. The click was yet to come. But the wheel did do something for me. It made me able to say I was a Star Wars fan without lying. (That was good, because lying is generally a bad thing.) Only days after, I saw Episode II, Attack of the Clones. At this time Revenge of the Sith was nowhere near being out, (They where only about 1/3 of the way through shooting at this time.) so I waited. For two years, that's 730 whole days, I waited for Revenge. I did not wait in silence.
I entered fifth grade, and ended up being the nucleus of a group, if you could call it that, thanks to my two best friends: twin sisters, who couldn't be more different, Melissa and Sarah. (AKA: Mel and SARS.) The only thing they had in common? They were both Star-Wars-aholics. (Again, I ask: Word?.)
We became the three-person Rebel alliance, the three-person Jedi Order, the three person Rogue Squadron, and we couldn't have been happier. At least that's what we thought until I found a tiny little piece of information: Star Wars, Episode III, Revenge of the Sith hits theaters at 12:00 am on May 19, 2005!
Enter the sticky notes
Yes, I did say sticky notes. Packs and packs of sticky notes, all over the walls of the house and later just my room. (Alas, Mom got sick of them, and I had to keep them where she didn't have to look at them.) The average sticky note said something like this: "Revenge of the Sith Comes Out On May 19!!" Or the later model, just, "May 19" Of course, there were some more creative ones like "On May 19, the Force will be with you!" Yes, I know, I'm obsessed. ( Melissa's standing over me as I write this in the lunch line, shaking her head, for although her love of Star Wars is great, she is not comprehending how one can write a personal essay about it.)
The official 5/19/05 countdown began on New Year's Day. If you didn't know about the release date, you were nuts. I wouldn't shut up about RotS (Revenge of the Sith). I think after a while my non-Star Wars friends, and even some of my pro-Star Wars ones, were actually ready to physically hurt me. Anyway, being an artist, I draw everything, on everything, but during this period, my drawings were replaced with "May 19". My friends began calling me Darth Sidious, (Now CDS) and I adopted Sarah as "my young apprentice." It was a glorious time. Finally, the day came. Yet May 19 wasn't the happiest day of my Star Wars life. It was the day after, May 20. We couldn't see it on opening day, so we had to wait 24 whole hours more! Child abuse, I tell you! That entire day, all through school, I couldn't sit still or pay attention. (Well, less than usual, anyways.) When the car riders were dismissed, I sprinted out of school to the car loading area, and met up with Ali, Sarah, Melissa, and my other Star Wars friend, Tessie, though she was going mainly for Hayden Christensen. Mom pulled up, we got in the van, (a new one, not hideously ugly like the old one), and Mom, Ali, Eric, Tessie, Sarah, Melissa and I met up with Dad, Eric's Star Wars friend, Kenny (even more annoying than Eric, if possible), and Kenny's mom at the theater. All in all, there were ten of us, and I haven't the slightest idea how Dad got tickets, but what did it matter? We were going to see Revenge.

5:20, May 20, 2005
Regal Cinemas
Theater 11, back row, three seats from the left,
County-not-for-viewing-over-the-internet, PA

It clicked. As the Fox fanfare started playing and "A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away..." flashed up on the screen (And as I was crying with joy according to Mel and SARS), it finally clicked: Star Wars isn't about starships or lightsabers, or droids, or Jedi in space battles. It isn't about some evil guy who takes over the galaxy and destroys the Jedi. No, that's what happens in Star Wars. What Star Wars is about is Love, Hate, light, darkness, war, peace, good, evil, triumph, failure, sadness, pain, happiness, courage, determination, betrayal, revenge, freedom, change, lies, trust, life, death, redemption.
And, yes, if you think I'm just some crazy Star Wars obsessed freak, well, you're probably right, but hear me out for a little while longer. I think I'm lucky, in a weird, twisted, demented kind of way. Star Wars came into my life at just the right time. Too young, I would never have understood it, and outgrown it by the time I was old enough to. Too old, well I would have been too old for "something as childish as Star Wars." and, if you think about it, that's what growing up is about. No, most of the time it's not as extreme as that, but that's still what it's about in its essence. More importantly, that list of things is what Life is about. For those of you who think I'm nuts, I say this: If you haven't before, just watch the movies and then tell me what your opinion is. For those of you who love Star Wars, I give you this famous quote from Ben Kenobi in Episode IV: "The Force will be with you. Always."

-CDS