I love Star Trek! I have been a Trekkie for the past 35 years, and now my daughter is an even bigger Trekkie!
I grew up watching re-runs of the original series, and then never missed an episode of The Next Generation as a teenager. I had the biggest crush on Wesley Crusher (played by Wil Wheaton) because he was so smart and cute!
Star Trek introduced me to a world where equality and human cooperation were real. The original was quite sexist, but still at least tried to promote a more equal future. The Next Generation had more female characters, but they were in secondary, nurturing type roles, such as a counselor and doctor. Voyager promoted inclusion and introduced a female captain who showed great strength, courage, leadership, and compassion; Captain Janeway (played by Kate Mulgrew) is my favorite captain. Then Enterprise and Deep Space 9 included more strong female characters, along with excellent thought-provoking plots and stories.
I introduced Star Trek to my daughter Sarah when she was 9. From her first episode of Voyager, she was hooked. Every year from then on, she requested Star Trek DVDs for Christmas. She then re-watched episodes over and over. Watching Star Trek became a favorite family activity. For example, there was generally a family Stark Trek watching marathon every Sunday.
We were living in Calgary, Canada when we started attending Star Trek and sci-fi conventions. The first one was in 2009 in a very small town named Vulcan in Alberta, Canada. There was a little parade and lots of Star Trek fans. It was super cute and super fun.
The following year, Sarah and I went to a Star Trek convention in Calgary, Alberta. We had a great time, although it certainly was crowded, especially for people in line to meet Leonard Nimoy. We enjoyed meeting Brent Spiner. Sarah got her picture taken with him, then he stared at it for a long time and said several times that he loves the picture. Awesome.
Over the years, we have met most of our favorite Star Trek actors, and we have had tons of fun dressing in Cosplay while attending Stark Trek and sci-fi conventions around the world.
My daughter is now an adult and lives in The Netherlands. She continues to attend Star Trek conventions in Europe with her boyfriend and best friend.
Hooray for Star Trek!