I never particularly liked Lucky Charms. Not sure if it was the in-your-face food dyed hoops or the convoluted fruity milk kibosh. Regardless, I never particularly liked Lucky Charms. Much more of a Wheaties guy. But unlike myself, the rest of my siblings loved Lucky Charms, especially my older brothers.

One morning in 2002, I remember walking down the downstairs hallway into the family room and kitchen. Distinctively remember wearing one green sock and one blue. I thought it was the funniest and silliest thing. My mother was looking out the window at my father who was cutting the grass. My older siblings were all sat at the table eating their breakfast, our cat Georgia was playing with her toy that was clasped onto the cupboard. It was a typical suburban All-American morning.

After being mocked, toyed with and joked with by my older siblings, I sat at the table where within a plastic sleeve sat a promotional lightsaber spoon! After asking about it, I opened it up and put it together. I always felt like I had the world at my finger tips when I was building things. When it came time to finally use the new spoon, I pressed the button and the spoon lit up a bright blue. I was hooked.

Within the cereal box we were enjoying was two free tickets to Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones, and my dad made sure that my siblings and I were all going to go. It was a friday night, my mom had a game night with her friends and it was in the spring so my brother had no sports going on. It was perfect, down to the smallest details. We picked up some KFC on the way to the theater, I enjoyed some popcorn chicken and sweet & sour sauce with a lemonade. As we got to the theatre, there were people dressed up as Jedi and had lightsabers along with them. In the theatre, they were giving away special edition cups that had these really interesting purple designs with Mace Windu across them.

The movie was phenomenal, and I loved every aspect about it. The sounds, the smell of the popcorn, the full house’s crowd reactions, the story, the colors. I was in awe and fascinated with the beauty that was Star Wars. I wanted to be Anakin Skywalker so bad, and had the fattest crush on Padme Amidala. Shoutout to Natalie Portman. The night was amazing, and my dad took us to Target afterwards where he got my brother Taylor and I toy lightsabers, the old Hasbro ones that collapsed and extended at the press of a button.

I was on cloud nine, and really haven’t looked back since. Star Wars has always been a comfort spot for me when I miss my family, need some hope or simply want to escape for a little while. It really is a galaxy far, far away where you can be yourself, free from judgement, and have the time of your life.

love trev