What Does Television Mean To You?

What does television mean to you? Maybe it’s just a square box or even a wall-mounted unit that you occasionally watch if there is a sports game on or a movie that you missed in the theatres. Perhaps it’s even something you use for entertainment from time to time when you can draw the family or friends around it – that is when their lives allow for extra time.

For me – television was more than just a square box or something used as entertainment from time to time. It was a way to escape a childhood illness that, for better or worse, had me trapped indoors watching all the other kids in the neighborhood run and play. It soon became more than just a pastime. It became my doorway into other worlds, adventures that weren’t possible yet there they were on that shiny TV screen. I was able to visit other planets, travel in space, stay right here on Earth, following high school students dance and sing their way through some of the most difficult times of their lives or even just watch cartoon characters race around and be silly.

My love affair with TV started out simple: Saturday morning cartoons. That soon led to Lassie and eventually Boomer and Benji (thus started my other love affair with dogs, but that’s a story for another time). My favorite types of programs grew and changed as I got older, but my love of TV never went away.

I’m so thankful for that childhood illness (that will actually be with me for the rest of my life, but that’s also another story for another time) that caused my parents to come up with some other way to entertain me for it has given me a life fuller than I could imagine.

I still visit other planets, travel in space, laugh at cartoons and watch way too many kids struggle through the hardest times of their lives (among MANY other genres that will have to be saved for another time). But what started as a simple diversion has allowed me to make life-long friends from all over the world (and I’m not taking about all my favorite TV characters), move across the country to follow a life-long dream (and make it a reality – and not one that airs on television) and to turn that love affair with a square box in my living room into a pseudo career that means more to me than anything else in my life.

To some that may sound crazy, but it has been the best ride of my life and I have no intentions of getting off. I hope you’ll come along on the crazy roller coaster with me and enjoy it as much as I do.