This year, I was invited to speak about “Teaching with Trek” at the Official Star Trek Convention in Las Vegas.   The goal of this series was to show how Star Trek could be used to teach media literacy as well as other important themes in the classroom as well as at home and in society.  I spoke about Star Trek as modern myth, its message of diversity, and “Why Klingons Have Ridges and Tribbles Don’t.”  If you were in my Media Criticism or Media and Modern Mythology classes at The University of North Alabama, those are familiar topics.  My son, Chris, and my husband, Randy came along for moral support.  Chris and I have been to conventions before, but this was Randy’s first Star Trek convention.

I have to admit, I was more than a little nervous, but the audiences were so welcoming and supporting, I moved right into “teaching mode”.

    The first presentation was in a large lecture hall.  We were pleased to have approximately 650 people in the audience.   The other two presentations were in a smaller venue, and we had a full house both times.  Trek fans were engaged, interested, and they asked lots of questions.  It was lots of fun to share what I teach with them.  It felt like the best of both worlds: teaching and Star Trek!

We had some other firsts as well.  We all had an opportunity to try VR for the first time and experience a museum of Gene Roddenberry’s keepsakes from Star Trek.  I wish I had a photo of the three of us in headsets.  I kept trying to walk through the hall of the Enterprise D and kept bumping into that table!

The picture above-right is part of the Ten-Forward set from The Next Generation.  You can see it behind the table holding VR equipment for the Virtual Reality demonstration.

There are always lots of interesting things to do and see at a Star Trek Convention.  Discussion about production design, writing, and lot of interviews with ST cast and production team members.

The costume contest is always fun too!

It was really interesting to see the props, costumes, and production art from the Mirror Universe in season 1 of  Discovery. 

Of course the most exciting moment of the entire week was when Patrick Stewart announced  that Jean Luc Picard will be back in a new Star Trek series.

All in all, it was an amazing week! Chris and I had were in our natural element.  Randy is not a big Trekker, but he had a great time too.  We have lots of great memories, and we’re looking forward to next year!

Jan, Chris and Randy ready to go home. Chris and I are wearing our DS-9 25th Anniversary T-shirts.

It’s every Trekker’s dream vacation.  My son Chris and I attended the Star Trek Convention in Las Vegas in August, 2016, for the 50th Anniversary of the franchise. It was an exciting and informative experience.   I watched the very first Star Trek episode in 1966, and I haven’t missed an episode in any series in the franchise since.  Chris began watching with me when he was little, and it’s been “our thing” ever since.  

We went to the convention last year to  celebrate the 50^th Anniversary of Star Trek and learned 2017 would honor the 30^th Anniversary the Star Trek: The Next Generation.   We knew we had to be there.  I’m so glad we did.  I don’t get that much one-on-one time with either of my boys now that they’re grown, and Chris and I had so much fun.  Last year we saw Terry Fador’s show at the Mirage,  enjoyed seafood at the Rio, and Sunday Brunch Buffet at the Bellagio.

This year we ate at Guy Fieri’s restaurant and shared the biggest burrito I’ve ever seen and fried ice cream!!’’

We love checking out the vendor’s room.  It’s absolutely packed with everything Star Trek that you can imagine – Tribbles, T-shirts, jewelry, books, posters, art, backpacks and lots and lots of photos.  Many of the cast members and other celebrities sign autographs there as well, and others just walk around to meet people. Chris found a phaser pillow and those are accent tables in various Federation shapes.

That was just the beginning of an amazing five days!!!

Class Senior Trip to Washington D.C. and New York City.

The big 50…. I thought it was bad when it was my 50^th birthday.  Now I just celebrated with classmates at our 50^th High School Reunion… It was a great event, but I was surprised by the mixed emotions.

We were the first graduating class from the newly consolidated Delta High School, a county school near Muncie, Indiana.  It was our job to choose the colors, write the fight song, name the yearbook and newspaper, and set the example and foundation for all of high school students from three different (and rival) schools merging into Delta High.   We took that responsibility pretty seriously, got to know each other, worked together and made it a great year.   Even now, it’s weird to think the “new” school is fifty years old.

Class reunions are a lot of trouble.  It takes a lot planning, dedication and hard work to put one together. (Thanks to those who did that work.)  It’s hard for some of us who live far away to get back for them.  Your spouse must be prepared to make the trip and interact with all those people you know but he doesn’t.  Then there’s the where to stay and what to wear….

It’s worth the trouble.  The years do somehow melt away.  You see people who know you in ways that your spouse and your kids and your grandkids don’t.  You were friends as you all were in the “becoming stages”, when everything was new, when dumb mistakes (big and little) were common.  It was an exciting time, even when it was hard, and growing is hard.

The thing about a fiftieth reunion, is that the relabeling and “proving” ourselves doesn’t seem all that important any more.  We’re pretty secure in our own skin.  We just are who we are, and we’re there –at the reunion—because we care about each other.  Many in my class are retired.  Some of us are moving into second careers.  Some, like me, can’t imagine retirement.   We spent a lot of time sharing and laughing and remembering.   We also spent time looking forward to new challenges, growing families, and living all the days God gives us.  Our reunion was a blessing, at least for me it was.

In other ways, it was sobering.  Fifty years.  I remember seeing pictures of 50-year reunions of previous classes from Royerton High School.  Those people looked so OLD.   I don’t feel old.  Am I?  Those gold numbers on the cake were a little disturbing.  Age happens whether we ignore it or not.

My hometown has changed.  The Ball State University is growing and modernizing, but I struggle to remember what used to be in a particular location, things that I thought would always be familiar are not so much.  Once new and neat neighborhoods from my childhood are now a little shabby.  The boom and bloom from heydays of Midwest manufacturing have faded into to weeds, cracked paint and disrepair.  Certainly there is growth and new construction in Muncie, but the change is evident to me.  They say you can’t go “home” again.  I didn’t expect it to be the same; I didn’t expect it to feel so different.

There are those who are gone…. Twenty-two members of our class have passed.  Some recently deceased, some we didn’t know well, others who were dear friends who blessed our lives.  We know that number will be larger when we meet again.

It was important to Mom and Dad to pay respects at the cemetery, so the last thing I do before I leave Muncie is put flowers on graves of my parents and sister.  I know they are not there; they are with Jesus. Still, I feel their absence from here so deeply.

So much change.  So much loss…. Reunions remind us of those things as well.

As Randy drove us down I-65 back to Alabama, I was glad to be going home.  It was great seeing everyone and being back where I grew up, but it was very clear that Muncie was just that – where I grew up.  God blessed me with a wonderful childhood, adolescence and early adulthood when Muncie was home.  Once home was where the people I came from lived.  Now home is where the people who come from me live –our sons, our grandchildren, my students.   Home is where my future is — and theirs.

Maybe I am old, but It’s okay.  Lord willing, I’ll be “old” for a long time, and I’m looking forward to our next reunion.