Say What You Will About Twilight

Whether you love it, hate it, or don’t give a darn either way, the Twilight book series and films will always be special to me. But not for the reasons you might think. (Note to the purists: I realize the book title is not capitalized, but for clarification in this post I’m capitalizing it.)

My daughter turns 18 in a couple of days and I guess this has made me nostalgic, even for events of just a few years ago. So if you’ll bear with me, I’m going to take a short trip down memory lane and for me, a big part of that is Twilight.

The reason I appreciate the book series and films is for what they brought to my relationship with my daughter. They created endless opportunities for interaction. Whether it was a discussion about boys and the stupid decisions some girls make (we’re both “Team Jacob”), planning for the midnight release of the last book or the first film (when I accidentally bought tickets for the following night, but was thankfully able to exchange while the girls waited in line in the freezing cold), or talking about how we love the stories though not so much the writing (sorry Ms. Meyers), Twilight gave us a lot.

When my daughter was 15 and anticipating the release of the first film, she learned that the following summer there would be a conference in Dallas called “twicon” (Twilight conference). If she wasn’t already obsessed (and I believe she’d be the first to tell you she was, though isn’t any longer), hearing about this conference ratcheted up her excitement about 10 notches. She decided she had to go. In order to sell her parents on the idea, she put together a very effective slide presentation, complete with links to websites, research she’d done on the cost of hotel, air travel vs. driving, meals, etc.

I’ll admit that my first reaction was hesitation. My daughter wants to go to a vampire conference complete with a “Volturi Masked Ball”?! Concerns I had that she was crossing over into the “dark side” were frankly silly if you know my daughter. But all the same I wanted to be sure I was making a good decision. I spoke with my husband, with her dad and stepmom, and I reached out to several moms I know of different ages to get their input. To a person they said the same thing, “if you’re daughter’s asking you to do something with her, do it”. We came to an agreement that if she could raise half the money herself she and I would go. By means of saving babysitting money and generous Christmas and birthday gifts of cash, we were on our way.

We had fun planning the trip, including how we’d manage expenses, which I think was a good opportunity to learn about budgeting. She had just got her license a few weeks before the trip, and it was fun sharing the driving (okay, and slightly nerve-wracking for both of us). We took our time, stopping at a hotel in Oklahoma on the way, and visiting the memorial for the victims of the Oklahoma City bombing. That was a sobering stop, but we were both glad to have gone. Finally we arrived in Dallas, and despite getting a bit lost, found the hotel. She was slightly embarrassed that I wore my “twilight mom” shirt (that she bought me!) until we saw dozens of others. And she quickly moved from embarrassment to excitement, upon seeing some of her favorite “You Tubers” and getting photos and autographs.

One of the highlights for me was being on a panel at the conference. My daughter had done some research ahead of time, and saw one of them was a “panel for the generations”. Knowing that I teach classes on “generations in the workplace”, she figured this was a good fit for the two of us. We applied and were accepted to the panel. It was fun participating with others, discussing issues, answering questions, etc.

While much of the conference was waiting in line for things, we decided it was worth it. She met actor Kellan Lutz (plays Emmett in the films) and I met Peter Facinelli (plays Carlisle, the “father” of the vampire clan). We heard fan bands like Mitch Hanson and saw the band 100 Monkeys, which actor Jackson Rathbone (plays Jasper) plays in. We dressed up and attended the “Volturi Masked Ball”. And we met many interesting and wonderful people, both young and old (ahem, older). In short, it was an experience to remember and I’ll always be grateful we did this together.

For the more literary minded, know that we also both read and love the Harry Potter books and films. We both agree they are much richer in terms of story lines to explore, characters, and writing style. And if Twilight was the center of my daughter’s youth, Harry Potter is the parentheses. Harry Potter was important in grade school, and now again as she’s finishing high school and about to start college. There’s something very poetic about the last film taking place just as she begins the next chapter in her own amazing journey. And as with Twilight, I’m grateful for what these magical books have brought to our relationship, including an entire lexicon of funny curse words and names. And while my daughter is almost 18 and moving on in the world, a connection to Twilight and Harry Potter is also allowing me to have a connection with my 13 year old niece who loves Twilight and 10 year old nephew who's a big fan of Harry Potter.

What about you? I’m not so concerned about whether or not you like Twilight (though you’re welcome to share that). But I’d like to hear if you have a special book series that brought you closer to your mother, daughter, father, son, niece, nephew, etc.