I don’t ever remember Star Wars not being a part of my life. From as early as I can remember, my dad and I would curl up on the couch to watch the original trilogy when it came on TV – well before VHS tapes and DVDs were a thing – and I was transfixed by the characters, the story, the special effects, the music, etc. If it was Star Wars related, I was obsessed. I think it’s a bit weird I never dressed up as Leia for Halloween, now that I think about it.

A big reason Star Wars is so special to me is because it’s still something my dad and I can bond over. Our shared love of the originals gives us plenty to talk about, since I can recommend what is now called Star Wars Legends, the original expanded universe series of books, all pre-Disney. We both felt the sting of disappointment with the prequel trilogy and ended up spending hours discussing what we thought they got wrong (and what they got right). Because I’d moved away, we didn’t see the first two sequel movies together, but we did discuss them over the phone, both of us with wildly different reactions to the changes the series seemed to be making. Star Wars means something different for me than it does for my dad, which is something I may write a post about later – not necessarily related to the challenge or the saga, even – but regardless of that, I feel like he and I can at least find some common ground. That’s kind of hard to come by these days.

Art Credit: 99 Designs