It all started when my brother borrowed several tapes of ST:TNG from a friend. Naturally, I ridiculed him, and naturally, he couldn't have cared less (he was, after all, five years older than me -- his sense of self hardly depended on my insults). The tapes sat in our home for several weeks, periodically watched by my family but passed over by myself. And then, I don't know how it happened... boredom must have finally won me over, because there I was, sitting in front of the television, watching an episode called "Genesis." And quite suddenly I was home, really home, there in the 24th century, on a ship christened the Enterprise-D, next to Jean-Luc Picard, Beverly Crusher, and all the rest.

Okay, so maybe my transformation into Trekkie-hood wasn't quite so sudden, but I was hooked, no bones about it. Within days, I had devoured all thirty episodes on those tapes, and since TNG was no longer on the air, the only way to get more was to admit my rash judgment of the series to my brother. Yes, he did laugh -- a lot -- but sure enough, he got more Trek. Then more, and more, until I'd watched every one of his friend's tapes over and over again.

It got to a point where TNG became my lullaby; I literally could not sleep if the sounds of Star Trek life were not in the background. It definitely complicated sleep-overs.

It's no secret that we Trek fans are not exactly thought the best of, at least here in America. The shows are like a guilty pleasure: everyone watches, everyone enjoys, but nobody talks about it afterward. Honestly, though, I didn't really mind after a while. I even got possessive -- TNG was mine, Voyager became mine, and more recently, Enterprise has become mine. Nobody understands them like I do, I used to think. Thanks to places like Outpost 10F, I know now that isn't true. But I must say, Trek has become a part of my life to a surprising extent. It has informed my philosophical considerations and expanded my reading lists. I have gone from acting like a Vulcan to imagining life as a Q to pondering the ethical considerations of Borg conquest. The questions and answers, it seems, are endless. This universe a group of people have created, it has inflamed my imagination (yes, now I write [very bad] science fiction stories), and what's more, it has been a binding agent for my family. You know there's a major Trekkie vibe at home when your brother tells you to stop talking like Seven of Nine.

Even after all these years, there's a little bit of Trek in my every day. And that's just the way I like it.