From Another Super Invested Fan: Thank You, Marvel. Sincerely, Me.

If I'm being honest, I have no idea how to start or finish this kind of article. I know I really wanted to write this since we're in the endgame now (literally) and how these movies have meant so much to me over the past few years. I also am very aware of the fact that countless others feel the same way I do, that I'm just another face in the sea of Marvel fans; nonetheless, my story is still just as significant as anyone's, so I decided to share it (and hopefully someone involved in these movies can read this someday).

To make a long story short, I only really started to get into the MCU when I was a freshman in high school. Sure, I remember watching bits and pieces of the original Fantastic Four and Spider-Man films and really taking a liking towards them when I was much younger, but I never thought anything more of it. I knew they were based off comic books and there were a ton of other heroes out there, and I always loved reading when I was little, but the intrigued part of me just wasn't having it yet.

I even saw the first Avengers movie in the movie theater and only remember being terrified of the jump scares of Hulk, being confused as to why Agent Coulson's "death" was so significant and wondering who the hell the purple guy was at the end. This twelve-year-old girl didn't know what would be in store for her in just two years time.

I specifically remember watching the movie that got me intrigued into the whole superhero movie universe- "The Amazing Spider-Man 2"- on a night where I was left out of a birthday celebration for a friend back then. My best friend at the time and I turned what could've been a night of sulking into a sleepover where we would also see this movie. She didn't enjoy the movie as much as I did, but those feelings that movie gave to me in that one night (adventure, excitement, hope) would spark something I didn't know I had inside of me.

That whole summer I researched everything Marvel- from X-Men to the Avengers, I read up on anything I could to understand this vast universe. I watched a movie talk show on YouTube every day before I had to go to volleyball practice to understand the exact rights of each Marvel property and to learn what's coming next in the MCU. I watched every Marvel Studios movie up until that point, started watching "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." and remember eagerly looking forward to "Guardians of the Galaxy" that would be coming out that August. I also prayed and prayed that my favorite hero, Spidey, would get to join the rest of these awesome heroes one day in the MCU (and that 14-year-old girl would be over-the-moon with how that would turn around in just two short years).

Although that wasn't as short of a story as I wanted to make it, I wanted to tell it in that much detail to show just how perfect the timing of liking these movies came to me. I went back to school my sophomore year more sure of who I was and even founded best friendships that I still have from then. It became a tradition for friends and me to go see these movies opening night, and now my younger sister will be going to her first premiere screening with "Endgame." These movies became the gateway to realizing how much I absolutely love movies, television and the people who act in them, too, and this became one of the reasons why I am majoring in Communication and Media Arts today.

When you take a step back and look at what Marvel Studios and Kevin Feige have done to create a whole universe of intertwined stories where most of the movies are genuinely good movies, that's a pretty incredible thing. But when you look at it from a personal take such as mine- how it's shaped friendships, traditions, who I am- it's on a whole other level of magic.

I really do hope that one day I will be able to thank Feige and these absolutely amazing actors and actresses that portray these characters so wonderfully. Most importantly, they never fail at showing me hope whenever I need it- whether it be Tony Stark escaping terrorists in a suit made of iron, Peter Parker lifting up cement blocks toppled on top of him or Steve Rogers putting up his fists saying he could do this all day- and I will forever be grateful to them. It's a feeling of gratitude you just can't put into words; even as I'm writing this, I still feel as though I'm not saying it in the way that can properly convey how much this universe means to me.

And, of course, I wish I could thank Jack Kirby and Stan Lee myself (and every other comic book artist involved) for creating this whole thing in the first place.

So no matter what happens in this next installment where it will be the end of an era (as well as where I will essentially be saying goodbye to my childhood for real), I'm still going to obsess over Marvel like anyone else- cry, laugh, and everything in between. If anyone dies or not, it's going to hit hard, because I'm never good with change or goodbyes like these.

It's a simple "see you later," for our heroes because we are always going to have this cinematic masterpiece on film for years to come. And at the end of the day, these are just movies after all.

But for some people, like me, they aren't just that. Not by a long shot.