Dear Rick Riordan,
Congrats on the last episode of the “Percy Jackson” season coming out this week! That must have been very exciting for you — at least I know I’ve been excited to watch the episodes every Tuesday. But, I was thinking, now that you maybe have some downtime before season two hopefully starts, that it sure would be nice if you came and visited little old Trinity University.
As you definitely already know, Trinity is nestled right in your hometown of San Antonio, because, I mean, your mom used to teach here in the computer science department for 12 years. Really, it just makes sense for you to come visit us. You could talk about your novels and the process of making the show — it would be nice.
Honestly, I think the event would sell out. I’ve never met a Trinity student who doesn’t love “Percy Jackson.” Not to overgeneralize — after all, I tell my writers not to do that all the time — but everyone here would be really happy if you came to visit.
I know for a fact that I was not the only person here that watched all the episodes the day they came out or set up little watch parties with my friends. So many of us grew up with Percy and found a nice dose of childhood nostalgia reliving the story on screen — faithfully, this time. (Though, I think we all have to admit that having Percy use the shiny back of an iPod Touch to defeat Medusa was kinda genius, but I digress.)
What I’m trying to say is that there is no generation that loves “Percy Jackson” quite like ours. I myself have quite a history with the series that started when I was in elementary school, when it was my best friend’s and my favorite book series and shared obsession. We had discussions about who our godly parent would be (Athena, for both of us), but how really we just wanted to be Hunters of Artemis.
Years later, we had both just graduated from high school and faced uncertain futures — both soon to leave Tennessee for college, off to two totally different places, and during a pandemic, no less. We needed an activity we could meet up outside for, so we ended up making a little “Percy Jackson” book club, just the two of us. We’d read each of the books and meet up to discuss, and there was something very comforting about returning to that world when, in many ways, we were about to be off on quests of our own.
That same summer, I was paired up with my roommate for the upcoming school year, a girl from New Mexico who I had never met before, and I was terrified that we wouldn’t get along. But as we texted back and forth trying to get to know each other, we discovered that both of us were re-reading the “Percy Jackson” series. She told me about how when she had gone to New York as a kid, she got a New York Yankees’ cap just to be like Annabeth, and I knew that we would be fast friends (and we totally were).
And then, my senior year of college, you put the show out, and once again, “Percy Jackson” found me at a point in my life where everything was about to change. But somehow, Percy, Annabeth and Grover make it all seem so much less scary — not just for me, but for my best friend, my old roommate and so many others, others who are right here at Trinity! Basically, it really would be the icing on the cake if you, say, wanted to come speak at our graduation or something. It’s up to you. And whoever plans events at Trinity, I guess.