How Star Wars changed my life

As the first post of my blog, I figure I should explain why the galaxy far, far away means so much to me. The story of my love for star wars doesn't actually start with me. The story starts with my sister. Kimberlie "Kimmie" Hansen was born on May 30th, 1998. It was only two short weeks later that she had her first (of many) seizures.

My sister grew up fighting multiple different disorders. The main condition she dealt with an epilepsy disorder known as Dravet Syndrome. Children with Dravet Syndrome rarely make it past the age of eight.

The list of her disabilities went on, she very easily could've been mad at the world. But she lived every day like it was her last. Kimmie loved life.

My sister was the spunkiest person you would've ever gotten the chance to meet. Most people at least have some grain of a filter when it comes to what they say, my sister had none of that. She said exactly what she wanted to say.

Well as you might imagine, It was a pretty traumatic experience seeing the countless medical emergencies I saw growing up. In order to cope with what I was seeing and feeling, I went to my dad's movie collection and grabbed a VHS Tape called Star Wars.

(Not A New Hope mind you, It was called Star Wars)

Star Wars was the two things I needed as I came to understand my sister's mortality. First, I needed an escape. I was easily swept up into a world of space wizards with laser swords, what's cooler than that?

The second thing I needed was a lesson I learned through those movies. I learned was that I have a choice in how I fight. I could "Go to the dark side" and give into my negative feelings. Or I could channel those feelings into helping those who can't help themselves.

“Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering” -Yoda-

I very easily could've let myself become angry at my sister, even though this wasn't her fault. Fear controlled me for much of my young life. I learned through a wise green Muppet that I didn't have to let the fear I was experiencing, rule my destiny.