Guest Post: My Star Wars Journey!

Today is May the 4th, and while it doesn't mean much to me other than a Monday this year, it has special significance to many over the world as the unofficial 'Star Wars' day. My wife, Akanksha, is a diehard fan of the franchise and writes about this experience below. Enjoy!

Today is un-officially and worldwide, known as "Star Wars Day". And it's only recently that I've truly appreciated what the franchise and its various spin-offs mean for me (and countless others). My dad loves science fiction and delving into the weird. He instilled my love for outer-worldly things from a very young age: from the ages of 5-10, I was obsessed with a game called Rayman (we can get into this in another blog post) that quickly snowballed into wanting to know about all things alien or foreign to us humans. This interest has persisted to this day! The closest I’ve got to that was Star Wars. It's a legacy that will never die and for me, reminds me of simpler times. The simple balance between dark and light, the triumph of good over evil (Something we need increasingly so in our fractured world), the tantalizing lights beaming across the screen as sabres were drawn to strike down empires. It was, and still is fascinating! The original trilogy was for me personally, much better than the ones that have crept up recently. That being said, I made sure to purchase the first-day, first-show tickets of the newer movies - often, at the expense of work. In recent times, I’ve managed to drag Varun along to these shows too, though it’s something I’m reconsidering given our last experience where he alternated between sleeping and asking me questions that sounded perfectly reasonable to him, but inane to me. Fun fact: I even auditioned as an extra for "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" in the U.AE. I was so pumped (as they took obscure measurements of my head and nose) to be a part of this, even if it was standing outside in the sweltering 50' humid desert of Dubai. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out, but it’s an experience I’ll always cherish, while also making for great filler conversation. The euphoria will never die. It's one of the ways I, as a 29-year-old, unwind after a long day. References to Star Wars aren't going to stop any time soon: from Friends to Scrubs and Grey's Anatomy - there's no escaping this. It’s an integral part of popular culture and long may it remain so And who would want to escape it at all? If you're like me, you know what I'm talking about. Though it was set in a "Galaxy far, far away", it's always helped me feel closer to my family and home. May the 4th be with you!