Titanic’s Centenary

This plaque to the RMS Titanic was one of the coolest parts about hiking through Greenwich, for me.

Anyone who knows me, knows. I love the Titanic. I know all kinds of random facts about the ship, and I can recite every single line from the movie. And yeah, it’s a long movie. I’ve been known to randomly spew out the monologue from the 27′ mark.

My earliest memory about the Titanic is from 1997. My parents were going on a date to see the film in theaters, and my brother, sister, and I were stuck with a babysitter. All I knew was that this movie was a pretty big deal. Years later, my friend, Jessica, got her wisdom teeth out, so we rented Titanic, the movie neither of us had seen. The two of us sat in her basement, crying our eyes out, falling in love with Jack Dawson. The next time I watched it, I started crying at the beginning, knowing Jack’s fate. Spoiler alert, the Titanic sinks. From there, my parents bought me the 10th Anniversary Edition DVD and after my third viewing, I knew every line.

It’s my comfort movie. It’s what I pop in when I’m having a bad day. It’s just Titanic.

I had always been interested in the liner in elementary school, from the Magic Tree House book about the disaster to anything else I could get my hands on. I love history and historical fiction, so Cameron’s movie was a perfect fit. So when I read that Titanic was coming out in theaters in 3D, I was excited. I wanted to recreate the experiences my parents had with the movie, of watching it on the big screen. I’ve watched in on my computer or on my television numerous times, but to experience it in theaters would be something magical. Unfortunately, with my relentless semester schedule, it doesn’t look I’m going to make it for the re-release. It might not be how I imagined my commemoration of the centenary, but it’s still an incredible thing, to re-release such an iconic movie.

The Titanic’s become one of those events that the world is fascinated with. I hiked to Greenwich one weekend while living in England, and found a memorial to the Titanic among the gardens there. I went to Munich and found a scale model of an ocean liner and immediately thought it was the famed ship. I’d love to go to Belfast to see where the ship was built. I’ve read countless articles in the past few weeks, watched so many documentaries, and enjoyed sharing what I’ve loved so much with James Cameron’s film with the world, as so many people commemorate the centenary.

So tonight, I decided to celebrate the centenary the only way I knew how, watching my favorite film in my apartment, curled up in my snuggie with a cuppa tea.

It’s been 84 years, and I can still smell the fresh paint…

I commemorated the centenary of the Titanic’s sinking by watching my favorite movie.

While hiking in Greenwich, London, I found a Titanic Memorial Garden, which I was fascinated with.

This plaque to the RMS Titanic was one of the coolest parts about hiking through Greenwich, for me.

While in Munich, I thought I found a scale model of the Titanic. I was disappointed when it wasn’t.