Personal Statement Practice #1 + Updates

Hello. It's been awhile since I visited this blog but I wanted to come back to it as a reflection and start showing the world how my thinking is actively changing. I will update you guys further soon but for now, here is a practice of me writing an intro to a personal statement based on my experiences with a certain Star Wars Movie. I will be updating this blog with continuations of my writings! The TV is huge. That is the first thing I remember. Not the movie, but the TV. A thick, long Sony that my dad bought before 4k, sitting in our living room like a small monolith. I’m 5, maybe 6, cross legged on our patterned carpet, with the opening crawl of Star Wars: Episode 1 The Phantom Menace rolling on our screen.I don’t read it since I’m 5 years old.

But then, the music crescendos and suddenly, two robbed Jedi are walking through a ship corridor, and I am lost in the movie. By the time Darth Maul unveils his double bladed lightsaber in the final fight, I’m not on my carpet anymore. My mind has transcended into another plane, zoned out of reality.

I learned later that I wasn’t supposed to feel that way.The internet taught me that the movie was horrible and later, middle school told me the same thing. I was 12 when one of my classmates brought up how bad theThe Phantom Menace was. “Jar Jar is so cringey. He ruins the movie”  he said, in the same way that someone states that grass is green. Obvious. Resolved. To even argue with it would be ludicrous. I smiled and just nodded, in a way one does when you realize you’ve been wrong your whole life.

But, I just couldn’t believe it.

I mean I tried to. I watched all the Youtube movie essays. I read all the forums. I studied IMDB, Rotten Tomatoes, and Metacritic reviews for more hours than I can count. And I guess you could say some of the criticism was fair. Ok sure, the movie can be clunky in some places. The pacing can drag just a little bit and in retrospect, Young Anakin might have needed to work on his line delivery in some sections. None of that is news.

So why do I still like this movie? I started sitting with this uncomfortable question.