Meeting Jennifer Morrison

Once upon a time, there was a convention in San Diego filled with all the pop culture characters and actors that we know and love.

One of them was Jennifer Morrison, who is my hero, and who I met.

This is how it happened.

“Once Upon A Time begins with Ginnifer Goodwin’s Snow White and Josh Dallas’s Prince Charming getting married in the Enchanted Forest, where all the fairy tale characters we know live together. The Evil Queen (Lana Parrilla) arrives during the ceremony and promises to destroy everyone’s happiness. Snow and Charming learn from Rumplestiltskin (Robert Carlyle) that the Queen plans to enact a curse that will rip everyone away to another world, where they will forget who they are and never age. Rumple also prophesizes that their unborn daughter Emma will break the curse after her 28^th birthday.

All magic comes with a price, and the price of the Queen's revenge will be an unending unhappiness in her heart, but she takes the chance and unleashes the curse. As it engulfs the Forest, Snow and Charming send newborn Emma through a magical wardrobe to the new world in hopes that she will one day fulfill her destiny and save her people. That new world happens to be our world.

The curse transports the citizens of the Enchanted Forest to Storybrooke, Maine, where they live for 28 years as Emma (Jennifer Morrison) grows up. Snow White is now a schoolteacher, Jiminy Cricket is a psychiatrist, and the Evil Queen rules the town with fear as the mayor. Through coincidence or fate, she is also the adoptive mother to Emma's son Henry (Jared Gilmore), whom Emma gave up at birth in hopes of him having a better life elsewhere. Henry finds Emma and brings her to Storybrooke, and when Emma sees how Regina treats Henry, she decides to stay and get to know him better while he tries to convince her of her destiny and that the curse is real.”

A story about a mother reuniting with her son is very personal to me. My mother passed away five years ago, and for a long time it was as though my life was doomed to sadness, and regret, and a never-ending grief. It's like a hole in your heart that you can never fill, it's like the curse. There were so many things I never got to know about her as a person, things that only friends and relatives could relay but that I could never know of first-hand. There were some points when the grief became so much that it almost took me into death as well.

Then Once Upon A Time arrived, and suddenly I was feeling happier. This was a story that I felt was made just for me. I've loved Disney since I was a small child, and a major appeal was spotting little Easter eggs from the animated films that are in each episode. The Once versions of the fairy tales that I know were very different; there was a twist to everything and it was never what you would expect, and it became addicting to watch each week. Every day was a countdown to the next Sunday's episode, and I took great delight in discussing my ideas on the future of storylines with the handful of other friends who watched it, though their interest and investment in the show was at a much lower intensity than my own.

Eventually I went to the Internet in search of other fans who were as fanatical about the show as I was and I found Once Upon A Fan. It was the fansite I'd been looking for, a dedicated place where "Oncers" like myself could find specific information about our favorite characters and actors from the show, episode recaps, forums, the full bag of tricks. I sent in a theory on what I thought would happen with a particular storyline, and it generated a decent enough discussion that I sent in more. Over time I became a staff member, contributing to weekly roundtables and generally spreading the word about the site to other fans as much as possible. 

It was great fun and has only gotten better. I love writing but have never had the courage to put it in front of other people's eyes and get their opinion, so the positive feedback was unexpected and inspiring. As time passed, the site's following grew to a tremendous size; fans sent in artwork and theories, and discussed the show on the forums. Last year we raised $14,000 for the With Kids charity and we're having another event this year for Stand Up to Cancer. We're even participating in the Enchantacon convention as a panel in Orlando, where we finally get to meet in November. It's just nuts how big this hobby for all of us has gotten, and how many people have responded with such positivity and support.

My personal life improved as well: I found my creativity more of a constant presence, something that needed nurtured and released and developed, and I'm now pursuing my passion and studying film production in college. My fellow staff members became some of my best friends, an incredible group of people who gave me great encouragement and feedback whenever I was feeling down or doubting myself. They changed my life as much as everything else with this show, an incredible thing considering I've never met any of them in person. (Love you, team.)

When the opportunity to attend San Diego Comic-Con as a member of the press arrived, I took the chance to get Once Upon A Fan included, got some letters from my editor Gareth Hughes, and sent in the requirements. As days turned to weeks and months, I forgot about our submission, until I got the email telling me we'd been approved. Six months later I found myself in Southern California, standing in press lines at the biggest entertainment convention of the year, waiting to interview not only my favorite person, but the entire main cast, as well with the cast and producers of the spin-off Once Upon A Time in Wonderland.

It was a huge honor to get the chance to represent such a wonderful community of fans who have found paths to happiness through the inspiration that the show has given them. I'm incredibly grateful to everyone who encouraged me and helped make it happen and helped me see it through to the end, from the staff members of Once Upon A Fan to the casts and producers of the shows, as well as the staff at ABC who made it possible. Most people dream of meeting one of their heroes; I didn't just meet my hero, I met all of them, and it was a bigger dream come true than anything I've ever wished for.

To me, Once Upon A Time is about family and love, hope and faith. It's about finding your destiny and making it your own, making it work for what you know. Emma Swan seeks to know her son, to reclaim him as her own and embrace her destiny as a mother, a role more powerful and magical than that of Savior to her people. Her reunion and growing relationship with Henry was a warming balance to the grief I had felt for so long, a mother-son relationship that flourished under the most extraordinary of circumstances, and I was able to accept my mother's passing and feel like I could move on. It's okay that I will never get some questions answered, because Emma is proof that you can live through such mysteries and survive.

This has been the most incredible experience of my life. I never thought I would be happy again after my mom died, or find joy or have hope for the future. The magic of Once Upon A Time spread beyond the television screen and into my heart, igniting my soul in a way that has changed me forever. It gave me drive, and ambition, and the desire to make the best of myself that I can. It allowed me to write, and find my voice on my own terms. It gave me self-confidence and belief in myself as a person, the knowledge that I am stronger than I'm aware and am capable of more than I think.

To Jennifer Morrison, who plays Emma Swan the Savior, I will say that meeting you was something I have dreamed of and wished for, and is something that I will never forget. I met you a mere three days before my 28th birthday, the same age when Emma was destined to break the curse. Your character did fulfill her destiny: she broke the curse when she was 28 and saved her people, but she also broke my curse and saved my life after my mother's death, and gave me unfathomable hope and dreams and inspiration. For that, there are truly no words. I wish you the best, thank you, thank you, thank you, and be blessed with as much love and hope and faith and magic as you and Emma have given to me.

I'll end this post with the foundations that this interview has reinforced and new lessons that it taught me:

Emma demonstrates real strength and resilience. During the fourth episode of the first season, she tells a cursed Cinderella that if she wants people to see her differently, she has to achieve that herself because there are no fairy godmothers in this world. And she's right. There is no waiting around for your destiny or what's to come. You have to put in the time, effort and commitment and make it happen. You have to want it with all of your being, and decide that you want it, and put all of your heart and soul and energy into the pursuit of it, and the rest will fall into place. It could end up that you find what you really wanted on your way to what you thought you wanted.

The battle for joy and contentment is a battle hard-fought, because obstacles and criticism are going to come at you from many angles. Some of them you'll be prepared for and you will face the challenge head-on, while others will completely blindside you and leave you in despair. In those moments, when your life, your soul, your very being feels ripped from you, it's okay to feel weak. It's okay to cry and feel it, because you're having the normal reaction to an abnormal circumstance. It's okay to feel these things because they are temporary and will pass, and because eventually you will once again win the day. It will take time, and effort, and sometimes you'll face situations that are like a dragon in a cave. But if you are brave enough to be yourself, brave enough to believe in yourself, brave enough to pursue what you love with all the power of your heart, and remember to be good to the people you love and cherish, you will win the day. Your confidence will return or begin, and you will overcome. You will conquer the dragon, and your kingdom will be great, because you'll have created it yourself. New challenges will always arise, but with each one comes new knowledge for you to use to keep working towards your happily ever after.

It is possible.

Be brave in the face of fear and rejection. Prepare for the battles in life. Make bold decisions. Study what is necessary for you to win the day. Stay focused on your goals and what you want to achieve. Love yourself and your family completely. Respect others and be mindful of how you affect them. Cherish your life, what it's brought to you and what it's taken from you. 

And above all, believe in yourself and believe that you can achieve your dreams, because your dreams want you just as much as you want them. When you believe in yourself, pursue what you love, and put in the effort, magic can happen.