I remember way back when....
The twilight movie was coming out. A few of my friends were talking about the Twilight Premiere on Bebo - and some on Facebook too, since that was only just beginning to get popular - and were saying how bad they thought it was and how they wouldn't recommend it.
I hadn't even heard of Twilight before then. I just knew of it as a film.
I used to mute the TV during ad-breaks (annoying little things) all the time, and either chat with my family/friends, or just go do something around the house until the ads were over.
One of the days I was chatting to my mother, when the sparkling Twilight logo caught the corner of my eye on the screen.
I had an idea that it was the film my friends were moaning about, but I wasn't 100% sure - and I wasn't particularly bothered to search for it online to be honest - so instead, I left the volume on the TV up all week, hoping to catch the trailer.
It wasn't that I'd wanted to see it... not after hearing my friends bitch about it so much.
I really just wanted to know exactly what they were bitching about.
And then...
I remember it being a Wednesday night in December. (The 17th, I THINK)
I was lying on my bed, watching something on Nickelodeon when the ads came on.
The previous Saturday, my Mam had bought me some new bed-sheets, so - while I remembered - I muted the TV and decided to put them on my bed. I was right in the middle of struggling with them, my back to the TV, when I glanced up to check if my programme had come back on yet.
A young brunette girl was on the screen.
I didn't have a clue who she was, or even what film it was, but I watched as a van slid across a car-park toward her. It looked like she was going to be killed until she was suddenly saved by some gorgeous looking guy who braced himself against the van, preventing the accident.
It looked interesting, so I quickly searched around for my remote control and turned on the sound, just in time to catch; "I know what you are." "Say it" and then the twilight logo.
The Twilight logo...
Crap.
All of my friends had said it was bad but I seemingly disagreed...
Okay, so I'd only caught about 10 seconds of the trailer, but it was enough.
It's funny when I think back to that moment.
If I could travel back in time, I don't know if I'd scream "DON'T LOOK!!" at myself, or if I'd just leave it, because - while I don't regret for one second any part of my obsession - I often wonder what I would be like now if I'd just ignored it like all the other times.
I now know that that was the moment my obsession began.
I wanted to know more. A lot more.
One guy in my office, Paddy, had mentioned in conversation a week or so back that his girlfriend couldn't wait for the film, and asked if I knew about "the twist".
I said no, and he merely said I'd be disappointed when I went to see it.
Another person who didn't seem to like it.
I decided to text a few of my close-friends to see if they'd go see it with me, but with it being right before Christmas, almost every one was busy.
I got over Christmas and into the New Year, catching the TV Spot almost every day and wondering about it - but thinking no one would go with me.
One day I text my best friend to see if she would go to the cinema with me.
Twilight never even entered my mind, as I figured there wouldn't be showings so long after it's initial release. My local cinema always seemed to have the same things on, but we decided to give it a go anyway.
As predicted, we'd already seen most of the other films, except for one action movie (can't remember the name right now), and... Twilight.
So, I lied to my best friend.
I told her I'd already seen the other movie, just so she would see Twilight with me.
I feigned disinterest ('I don't mind not going to see it.'), not wanting to push her/look like I wanted to see it, but she agreed without a problem, noticing that it was going out of the cinema's shortly, and not wanting to miss it... so, we bought our tickets, got the popcorn and drinks, and settled down into our seats....
From the first moment, I was intrigued.
This bored, average-looking teenage girl immediately seemed lonely that she'd moved from Sunny Florida to a small, dark, rainy town. She wasn't happy.
The blue hue of the film seemed to add mystery against the backdrop of greens all around her, and I found myself suddenly immersed in her world.
Feeling the awkwardness she felt around her father, feeling the cold and wet air around her, empathizing with her on her first day in school...
And when Edward Cullen walked into the cafeteria... wow.
Not knowing that this was a vampire film (ridiculous, right?) I spent the next 20 minutes in awe, watching as Bella slowly figured everything out, and gasping as she said the words "Vampire" out loud.
I knew that he and his family were hiding a secret, but I truly - hand-on-my-heart - did not know they were vampires.
Would he kill her?
I waited with baited breath, but no. She was safe. He loved her...
It happened quickly in the film, and I'd normally laugh at the notion that, after acting so cold toward her initially, he'd secretly be in love with her... but it seemed natural, and I never questioned it.
From the second Edward had hit the screen, I'd been wondering exactly from where I had seen him from before, and so, during his 'piano' scene, I whispered my question to my friend, who laughed and said "He's the guy from Harry Potter. The one you liked."
That was it!!! I knew him now. The one who got killed. I made a mental note to google his name when I got home.
As the film ended, and they showed Victoria as she watched over Bella and Edward dancing outside, my eyes widened.
I turned to my friend and said: "That was good! Do you think there'll be another one?"
to which she laughed: "Yeah! Obviously! They're based on a series of books. Did you not know that?"
I shook my head and tried not to gush about how amazing I really thought it was, and we headed back to our own houses...
As soon as I opened my laptop, I immediately googled 'Twilight'.
Soon, I found a site that allowed me to download the pdf files of each book, and I spent the next week reading them.
Every. single. night. - sometimes until 3 or 4am, even though I was in work the next morning at 9am.
I really was well and truely hooked.
As the DVD wasn't out, I lived on YouTube - watching the fan-made trailers - and re-read the e-books countless numbers of times.
I managed to keep my obsession from most people - bar my family and closest friends - but I ordered tons of books, shirts, magazines, bookmarks and whatever else I could get my hands on from online shops, as there really wasn't a lot of Twilight Merchandise around Dublin.
I was pretty sure that I was the only person in Ireland that liked Twilight!
Until the first Friday in April 2009.
A woman I worked with came back into the office after lunch and showed me a DVD she'd bought for her daughter.
"She asked me to get this before it sells out." she said, along with an eye-roll.
"Oh, yeah. I've heard of that. Any good?" was my reply, still embarrassed to admit my obsession.
I'd actually spent so much time thinking about the story-line, that I'd forgotten it was going to be released on DVD.
As she relieved me for my lunch-break, I ran across the road to HMV and bought the DVD.
Another two months passed with me watching the film, start to finish, every night.
None of my friends knew about this and I wondered if I really was the only obsessive Irish fan out there...
So, I turned to my trusty friend, Google.
"Twilight Ireland" - nothing
"Twilight Irish Fans" - nothing.
"Twilight Dublin" - nothi- oh wait!
Google had thrown up something from twitter.
An actor from the film, Peter Facinelli, was apparently going to be in Dublin... TOMORROW!!
I cursed, not knowing where the building was exactly, but hoping that if someone would come with me, I could find it.
I text a few people to see if they were free, but it was too last-minute, and no-one was able to get out of work/college, so I knew I was going to have to miss that.
A part of me was saddened but then I realized that there probably wouldn't be a lot of people there. After all, who knew anything about Twilight over here??
Still, after a week or two of looking online for twilight-news, I decided to get a twitter account under my own name.
There were a few american sites I could follow, but each day I searched for other Irish people, smiling when I came across a brand new website called "Irish Twilight Sisters".
It seemed as though there was another Irish fan out there! AND they were on twitter! I followed them... and then another one... then another one... and my obsession soon grew.
Twitter was a wealth of picture-leaks, behind-the-scenes video's and photos, official stills, and people thinking just like me!
My Robert Pattinson obsession also grew right along with every photo-shoot and interview that came out... I laughed as I decided I was "Robsessed".
Hmm a good twitter name?
Thinking I was clever, I tried it... but it was taken. Twilight-obsessed... Twilsessed... hmm yes. I liked that.
As soon as my name changed, I was getting twilight-fans following me!
Twitter was addicting. Twilight was addicting.
And I was making friends online who didn't get bored no matter how much I gushed over the saga.
I soon found out about a 'New Moon' event happening in Dublin, where Solomon Trimble, AKA the first Sam in Twilight, would be appearing.
I bought tickets.
And there I met some other Irish fans. There were only a handful of us, but I didn't care.
I even got to meet the women who ran the Twilight websites that I followed!
From there, I was introduced to fan-fiction, where I could the Twilight saga from Edward Point of View - albeit a fan-idea of his PoV.
Two years later and I'm still just as obsessed,and still very much in touch with the Irish Fans I met.
In fact, I even became part of the blog I loved so much last November and have managed to go to two premieres, and a London-based fan event thanks to it! (http://theirishtwilightsisters.blogspot.com)
Breaking Dawn will be out in just over a month (31 days according to my countdown in the sidebar there) and I'm shocked when I think back to where it started.
Not only did it get me back into reading, it helped me mature by showing me that I didn't need to 'follow the crowd'. It introduced me to different people and I found myself to be much happier just because of it.
It has literally become my life now (yes, I'm being cheesy by using a line from the film.)
Never before have I felt like this over a film.
The people i've met, the places I've learned about... I wouldn't change it for the world!
