A Trip To The Movies (My Albanian Spongebob memoir)

From Albanian SpongeBob Wiki

I remember I begged with my parents, pleaded until their ears nearly fell off. "Please, can we go see Albanian Spongebob?"

I didn't understand the financial problems, I was 5 at the time. While watching Saturday morning cartoons I had seen an ad for Albanian Spongebob, and immediately I knew it would be the greatest thing I ever saw - if I got to see it. What I didn't realize was that the nearest theater showing it was over two hours away, and growing up on the lower side of the income spectrum meant the gas money for such a trip was hard to come by.

My poor parents. They tried to explain the situation to me, but I wouldn't have it. I just needed to see that movie, and nothing was going to stop me. After a few weeks of nonstop pestering they finally gave in, but by that point there weren't even any theaters in the same state that were still showing it (as we all know it was a box office bomb at the time, though one that has subsequently received the acclaim it deserves). We ended up going on a 5 hour drive, both ways, to make it to an art house theater on the last day they were playing it.

We were the only ones in the theater. As soon as the lights went down, I knew I was witnessing history. I'm not much of a film buff now, and I certainly wasn't back then, but even as a child I could explain what makes the film so brilliant. The colors, the characters, the humor - all culminating in a story that's so gripping you can't look away. The social commentary of the film still shapes how I view the world, and I make an effort to be more like Albanian Spongebob (the undeniable hero of the story) every day of my life.

By the time the credits rolled, I wanted nothing more than to see it again, but we had already spent all our spare money on gas, so we couldn't afford any more tickets. That was okay though - it implanted itself so vividly in my mind that from that point forward I could rewatch it any time I wanted, just by remembering it.

On the way back to the car I got hit by a bus