After quite a long break, Darth Chamby has returned! I hope you missed me.

It's been a hectic time for me of late. In order to explain why I'll have to give you a bit of my background. I'm 23 years old, I've been to college but I didn't go away to school. I've lived with my parents my whole life. I grew up in one area for 20 years, until the family left last year when my dad had to relocate for work. Unfortunately, we moved from the Greater Toronto Area of Canada to a small town a few hours north. In Star Wars terms, we went from Coruscant to Hoth.

Now as a young jedi itching to start my own life adventures, Hoth ain't the best place. "If there's a bright centre of the universe, you're on the planet that it's furthest from." I spent the last year clinging to a childhood that's gone, trying to live a life that has passed me by. So I've made the decision to pack up and seek my fortunes elsewhere, starting with a return to my proverbial Coruscant. It's an adventure because it's the first time I'll be living on my own, away from my parents.

I love Star Wars for more reasons than I could fill into any one blog (though maybe one day I'll try) but right now the reason that comes to mind is its sense of adventure and wonder. A young farm boy leaves home and meets a destiny that will shape the galaxy. Now, he left his home because a tragedy gave him no home to go back to, which isn't true in my case. My parents are thankfully alive and well, and they've always been wonderful to me. I'm not trying to get away from them. But I need to find out who I am.

So I relate a litle more to the decades earlier instance of Anakin Skywalker leaving his loving mother on Tattooine to seek his destiny. He has a hard time letting go and saying goodbye, but he does. That's what I feel like. I have to leave behind my dad and mom, who I've always been so close to, and find my own way. I'm scared I won't be able to. I'll want to turn right back around and be safe again. But I won't. If Anakin and Luke had never left Tattooine, they wouldn't have become the jedi heroes that they did.

It goes without saying I'd like to avoid Anakin's darker destiny Although I am growing my hair to match his from Ep 3, because long hair is where it's at!

Anyway, I've always had a hard time letting go of times and places. Facing forward and letting the past fall away. It's not my strong suit. I've heard GL say that that was Anakin's big problem. He can't let go. He needs to control things so he can have them the way he wants them. I've felt like that sometimes. Like if only my friends would do this, or stay here, if only my parents hadn't moved to frickin Hoth, etc.

But my path is my own, and noone can make my choices for me. It's time to tap into that power that surrounds us and penetrates us and find out what I'm made of.

I think the force is with me.... but I'm not a jedi yet.