Pop-culture love stories: The healing power of 'Trek'

From USA Today

In my senior year of high school, I fell in love hard with a tall raven-eyed beauty whom to my teenaged eyes seemed perfection. She was commonly regarded as the hottest girl in the senior class; what left me gobsmacked was that she was also an artsy geek who eschewed the cheerleading squad for painting oils in my school's art room.

And, somewhat to my amazement, she dug me, too.

It was a pretty torrid affair as those things go, and it lasted for several blissful months until she dropped the inevitable curtain and left me just before Christmas.

I was devastated and certain my life was totally over at 17.

Then Star Trek (the original series) happened. I was aware of the show, already long in reruns, but had never watched it particularly closely. That Saturday morning after The Dumping, I stumbled upon an episode which seemed to be speaking directly to me: City on the Edge of Forever, a classic story about love and loss in which poor Captain Kirk is forced to sacrifice his girlfriend in order to save the future for us all.

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