Fast and Furious Week: Day 7 (Free Day)
For Free Day, I'll tell you the story of how I got into the series.
One night many years ago, I think somewhere between the home media release of 2 Fast 2 Furious and the theatrical release of The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, me, my father, and my younger brother were in my dad's car. We were in the parking lot of a FoodMaxx waiting for my mother (either getting something from FoodMaxx or McDonald's). Dad, wanting to kill the boredom, got out his portable DVD player and put on a movie, it was the first film. Dad didn't think me and my brother would be watching because I think we had our Gameboys and would be too busy playing... But I was watching. When I saw that scene with Brian driving his car in front of the arena, him meeting with Dom, Mia, and the others at the store, the street race, I was just hooked on it. When we got home, out of curiosity, I asked my dad if I could burrow the DVD and he let me. I watched the film again and I loved it. Seeing the characters, what they can do in and out of cars, how close they were, seeing the excitement and adventures they had, part of me wished I could be part of that world, to do whatever you want, whenever you want with little consequences. (And most of all, no bullies, I used to get picked on a lot in my school years.) As I watched the series unfold through the years, my view of that world expanded and showed that Dom and his family are also heroes in their own right.
Even today, I wish I could be like Dominic Toretto, to live my life a quarter mile at a time, whether it's by myself or with the people I care about. For those ten second or less, I want to be free.