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I watched The Meg yesterday and it was life-changing.

But I should start at the beginning.

I love film — I mean, who doesn’t? — and used to go to the movies all the time. Especially after I moved downtown to an area that has a discount movie theatre. Once a week or so, I’d hand over the money for a ticket, buy some popcorn, and get ready to disappear into another world.

About 16 years ago, my neck got injured by an abusive caregiver and it gave me a pretty bad case of more or less permanent whiplash. It means that bending my head back even a bit is not a good idea. And since most theatres involve some sort of incline or bending your head back to see the screen, it meant the end of going to the movies.

It was another one of those losses that knocked away a part of who I was, chipped away at my identity. Sure, I could still rent movies — and I did — but that part of me that kept up with new releases, watched foreign films and documentaries in the theatres… That part was lost.

After that came the Big Flare and a host of other losses, followed by Biologics and regaining some parts of my life, but far from all. I tried going back to the theatre, but my neck immediately flipped out and I had to leave before the previews started. So I tried to resign myself to being the kind of person who didn’t go to the movies.

Which brings me to the shark movie. Creature features were big in the summer of 1999. My sister and I would get together every week and watch a movie. That summer is very much part of our particular sisterhood —.I remember with great pleasure watching Lake Placid and Deep Blue Sea (perfect summer flicks) in the dark theatre holding hands during the scary bits (because we are both wusses) and sharing a bag of popcorn.

So naturally, when I saw the trailers for The Meg, I got really excited. And then I got really sad.

And then I snapped. It was time to try again. So I went to a local large multiplex and got a ticket. First, I go a ticket for one of those fancy VIP rooms, but the wheelchair seating was just in front of the screen where you had to bend your head backwards to see anything. Because disabilities never affect a person’s ability to do that, right? So I went to get my money back, but the movie was playing in one of the other theatres. In 3-D!!

And best of all, it had the kind of seating where I could watch the movie. That meant stadium seating for half, then a large flat area for generalized traffic and wheelchairs, then more stadium seating. Perfect!

When I last watched movies, 3-D wasn’t part of the game. I remember when it started getting big a few years after the neck injury. I was talking to my sister, who told me that you didn’t really need the glasses — it was just fun when something flew at the screen. So that was my expectation, but I put the glasses on anyway.

And promptly had my mind blown to bits. Because everything was 3-D! Sure, if you really paid attention, it was obvious that it was a view of a camera, but when you just disappeared into the movie, it was like being in the room with these people (and in the water with the shark). Everything was three-dimensional, it was as if you stepped into the scene, as if you could reach out your hand and touch something. At one point early on, a bird flew by at the “front” and my brain actually got tricked into whipping my head to the left, to check for the bird.

It was magic. Absolute magic.

I felt like I had lived with one of those lost tribes in the Amazon for the last couple of decades and when emerging into the world, being wholly convinced that it was all sorcery and the people were gods.

Everything I’ve ever seen on a movie theatres screen or a television screen has been two-dimensional. Because of my lengthy absence from the movie theatre, I never saw the early starters in 3-D movie making — the ones that looked hokey and artificial. Instead, I got thrown straight into 2018 excellence and I’m still not over it. I mean, I know it was a movie, but it was so incredibly real. What an adventure! (Also, the movie is a blast — perfect summer flick)

And that part of me that was lost 16 years ago was found again. Because I can go to the movies now. Only in the right kind of theatre, sure, but that is infinitely better than not being able to go at all.

I have no words to describe the wonder.