Not in a creepy, Google Alert kind of way but ever since I was...well, I don't really know when it started, but I have always been enamored with the story of their family. I realize by putting this out on the internet, I have now destroyed any chance I had at ever dating a New Englander with that boyish charm so evident in the Kennedy men.
I suppose my interest was piqued while I was in middle school. In my seventh grade language arts (read: English) class, we watched a movie that I believe was supposed to teach us about researching for essays. Regardless, the movie was about a high school student who was somehow trapped and library and some weird time traveling stuff happened and he was transported to the 1960s. There, he learned all about the Bay of Pigs incident. Thus, John F. Kennedy was involved. I should say that one of the great mysteries of my life will be that I cannot remember what this movie is called. Lord knows I have searched the internet high and low for it. Many a time I have googled "film research bay of pigs student time travel" and various other keywords but have come up empty handed. I will someday, I promise you that.
So, weird language arts movie inspires seventh grade to learn more about America's very own royalty...big whoop. Why do they matter so much to me? Why did I cry about Ted Kennedy dying? The truth is, I don't really know. Maybe I thought JFK was cute...but really if we have to come up with a conclusive answer here, I'm going to say it's because he was a Democrat...and a damn good one at that. For someone who grew up in a family where I honestly think I would have been shunned if I were a, oh, I can't even type it without feeling wrong, Republican, the Kennedys were a beacon. Good Democrats through and through.
Let's say for arugments sake that I was/am (don't want to really say which) slightly, maybe, just a little bit obsessed with the family. We can blame it on my eighth grade Extended Studies (again read: Gifted and Talented) teacher for putting my class through a unit about the JFK assassination. We had to research the hell out of people involved from Clint Hill (one of the CIA agents...the one who jumped on the back of the car when Jackie was reaching for that piece of Jack's skull...you know...oh, nevermind) to Abraham Zapruder (you know him, trust me).We talked about the Magic Bullet theory and we even went to Dallas to go to the Sixth Floor Museum (!!!!!!!!) and at the end we even acted out our very own Warren Commission (I was Clint). We watched Oliver Stone's JFK and that's probably what did me in. I totally reject the notion that LHO (Lee Harvey Oswald) acted alone. I won't go into specifics but I just can't believe the Magic Bullet theory. I'm with Jim Garrison on this one. But I digress.
Once I had a roommate at a youth journalism conference I went to in D.C., and GUESS WHAT. She was obsessed with the Kennedys too. We even tried to convince ourselves that it was kismet and that our room number was somehow related to the Kennedy universe. (We deduced that it was the date JFK Jr. was conceived. Don't ask.) I went to DC with my family the week before my conference and while my mom was off looking at Great American Art, my dad and I went to Arlington National Cemetery. I guess I didn't connect the dots until we walked up that hill to their graves. Then it hit me, they were there. It was an extremely real moment for me as I wept (yes, I wept) at first Jack and Jackie's and then at Bobby's.
I still haven't been to see anything in Boston or Hyannis but it's on my to-do list. I like to think I haven't gone yet because I feel like I might, like, cry a lot or have a breakdown or something.
It goes without saying that I have seen every TV show and movie and read every book that I could get my hands on about these people but I don't believe I've ever been able to put into words the impact that this family has had on me. I can say that I wrote my Dartmouth admissions essay about how they inspired me to want to give back to my community and do something better with my life. I used to want to be a politician because of them. I still do, but on a smaller scale. After all, in one of the many books in my personal Kennedy library, I read that an early motto of theirs was "I shall pass through this world but once. Any good that I can do or any kindness show, let me do it now. For I shall not pass this way again."
God bless them. Really.
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The post today was inspired by Taylor Swift living out my personal fantasy by purchasing a house in Hyannis just to be closer to her boyfriend....a Kennedy.
Links and stuff for this post:
Ethel (sarcastically?) endorses her grandson's relationship with Taylor Swift
Taylor Swift reportedly buys a house by Ethel's
Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza
JFK/RFK/EMK Gravesite/Monuments/etc.
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