I don't remember the exact date from personal memory, although I could look it up and find out, but I remember the year, 1977. I had turned 5 just 2 ½ months prior and still I had not been to a theater to view any type of movie. In fact, I was afraid of them. So it was a life changing moment for me on that day in 1977 when I first ever viewed a little movie called Star Wars.

It was soon after its release, and I was taken to see it by my Step Dad and Mom, without choice mined you, but told I would like it. I guess with all the hype surrounding this one film, it was chosen for me that I "had to see it".

To get it off my chest first and for most, I was terrified. There were too many people there, and they were too excited and loud. They were laughing and joking and having way to much fun. Is this the way it is at a movie theater, I asked myself. Then the lights went down, and it got darker then I cared for it to get. I was trapped, in what I felt was to big of a chair, in the dark, with a bunch of strangers who suddenly got very quiet.

I remember the words "A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away...." and then the loud booming music and the sudden explosion of cheers. That put me over the edge and I became more then terrified, I was petrified. The only thing I could do is cry, so I did.

I remember not making too much noise, not that it would matter, and I remember making a bunch of tears. As the Blockade Runner passed onto the screen, being shot at by a Star Destroyer I cried. When people were being shot and trying to stay alive, I cried. When C3PO and R2D2 blasted down to the planet in the escape pod I cried, and needless to say, Darth Vader made me cry.

Then the jawas came, and I became puzzled. Then Luke came on screen and I started to relax, and take a little notice. The scenes leading up to the Cantina calmed me down. Then the action busted onto the screen with Han Solo and Chewbacca. I warmed up to Chewbacca real fast cause he looked like a big Teddy Bear to me. Before the movie arrived at the Death Star, I was all but dried up and very interested in what was going on. No one had attacked me in the dark; they were all glued to the big screen before me.

By the end of the movie I was cheering with the rest of the people in the theater. Luke and Leia swung across the chasm in the Death Star, I was cheering. Escaping from the Death Star with the Fighters on there backs, I cheered. The exciting battle in the X-wings, I cheered. And when Luke and Han got there rewards at the end, I cheered, and cheered some more.

From that day on, I found the magic of the movies. The emotion and the excitement of what it was like to create something that both mesmerized and excited people. That was my very first movie theater experience and the very first time I had been someplace where people cheered for something that was not really happening. The entire experience has become fused into my mind as a positive childhood memory. Because of that day I discovered my own creative spirit and the ability to take whatever I had locked up in my own imagination and use it to create something that could be shared with other people.

Now I'm 33 years old, and still I fall back on the story that took place a long time ago for inspiration when I can't think of a new idea when I write or draw or paint. I think of Lucas and the way he was able to come up with a very simple idea and turn it into a masterpiece. In the end, I think of the possible "what if" and wonder if a simple idea that anyone of us, or me, comes up with can make as much of an impact on history as this story has. It's a good positive feeling to carry with you, even if you never accomplish anything close to Mr. Lucas, you can touch one, two, or maybe three people you know, and still make a difference. All it took for me is one single night in Torrance California, a movie theater, a few tears, and a bunch of scary cheering people to wake me up to what can really be accomplished in life if you just put your mind to it, and have faith in yourself.