The first time I cried because of a movie or a television show was during an episode of Keenan & Kel.

Yes, you read that right. Keenan & Kel.

I’m not exactly sure how old I was, but it was definitely before fifth grade because I was in my old house, watching TV in my parents’ room. My parents were downstairs or something and I was sitting on the floor in front of the TV watching my favorite duo at the time (like Seigfried and Roy, Abbott and Costello, Magic and Kareem or Penn and Teller).

I was sitting there, minding my own business, when all of a sudden, it hit me. A lump appeared in my throat, my eyes welled up and the floodgates opened. I ran into my parents’ bathroom with tears streaming down my face, hoping that no one would be able to hear my uncontrollable weeping.

Despite my best efforts, my mom came running into the bathroom and asked me what was wrong.

Between the sobs, I was able to get out, “Keenan’s moving away and now I can’t stop crying. I feel so bad for Kel.”

At the time I thought this was stupid. How could I be so upset that a fake person’s fake best friend was fake moving away? It seemed crazy to me that something that wasn’t even real could evoke this much emotion out of me.

Looking back on it now, it makes so much more sense to me why I was crying that night. As ridiculous as it sounds, I grew up with Keenan and Kel. I watched their friendship become what it had become and now I was watching it potentially end. None of it was real, but that was ok. It felt real. I’ve come to terms with the fact that a Keenan & Kel made me cry and I’ve convinced myself that it doesn’t make me a sissy.

Since coming to terms, I haven’t stopped crying- The Pursuit of Happiness (spoiler) when Will Smith gets the job, anything with Tom Hanks (including Toy Story 3), Stepbrothers (from laughter), the series finale of Boy Meets World when everyone says goodbye to Mr. Feeny, the first 20 minutes of Les Miserables and, of course, two times during Up. I’d like to think that’s all of them but, as embarrassing as it is to publicly announce to a potentially world-wide audience on the internet, I’m sure there’s more.

I guess the point that I’m trying to make is that movies and television play a bigger role in our lives than we realize. We watch as children, grow up with it and grow old with it. These movies and shows that we watch matter to us. The fact that they can bring out so many different emotions out of us is proof enough. It may seem silly to invest as much time as we do into something made up, but it must mean something to us if we keep on doing it.

And since we’re being silly and will continue to be silly for the foreseeable future, I ask that you to invest a little more time into your movies and TV by introducing you to Glued 2 The Screen. This website will be my outlet for the emotional roller coaster I go through while watching something and hopefully it can become yours. The goal is that the passion I have for movies and television will show throughout the site.

My cousin Neil is also a founder of Glued 2 The Screen. I promise you that he’s as passionate as I am about this sort of thing and it will show in his work as well.

As we go forward, G2TS hopes to bring you as much content as two unemployed, recently graduated twenty-somethings possibly can. Regular features will be introduced in the coming weeks as well as a podcast that we hope to get off the ground as soon as possible.

People are going to say that these movies and TV don’t matter, or that we’re wasting our time, or even say, “Don’t sit so close to the screen, you’re going to go blind.” But that’s a bunch of malarky. If you’re reading this, you know that we care about all of these pretend things for a reason. We promise to keep appreciating this stuff as much as you do as long as you remember to stay Glued 2 The Screen.