Maybe the first time you saw it. Maybe other times. Seeing a movie in a movie theater lends itself to a more textured experience, so maybe if you saw it back in 1997/1998 you have a couple distinct memories about the experience.

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I remember going by myself to the bigger theater in the next town, back in 1998. (It had a small release in December of 1997 but didn’t reach me in South Carolina until early 1998.) As far as I was concerned, Good Will Hunting was a small, indie movie for discerning viewers (like my 17-year-old self).

I had been to Boston before, and had lived in a suburb when I was younger. The next year I would go to college in western Massachusetts.

Getting home from the theater involved taking a small highway, not unlike the one seen at the end of the film, and I reflected upon my young life in a brooding, Matt-Damon-y way on the ride. Inspired (I was an artist, you see) by Gus Van Sant’s tonal choices in the film, I went to the little room off of the garage that I called “my studio,” where I had my art supplies set up. I did a small abstract oil painting, which relied heavily on yellow ochre, burnt sienna, and raw sienna (among my favorites, those earth tones).

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This evening I was walking into the Harvard Square T station, on my way to a Red Sox game, and a group of college kids were walking ahead of me.  They came to a stop — a couple of them were looking around — and as I walked by the group I heard one guy say to the others, “Hey, where’s Skylar?”

It was a valid question.

Wait, no it wasn’t.  She’s in med school in California.  Duh.

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