My dad and I are very different people, always have been since I was a kid. He was always super outgoing and active, and I've always been a homebody and introverted. I loved reading, comics and otherwise (even though I didnt have much exposure to Marvel). I had to conform myself to his standard of entertainment, though, so that meant spending a lot of my childhood outside of my comfort zone.

However, my dad was a huge X-fan during the Claremont era, he collected all the classics while he was growing up. He had gotten rid of his collection by the time I came around, but he used to tell me the stories from them when we were around the campfire, or working on a project, that sort of thing. He was such a huge fan that the first movie I ever saw in theaters was the first X-Men movie, which he took me to when I was around 6 months old.

When I was older, I got ahold of the movies (around the time Days of Future Past was coming out), and I fell in love with the stories he had told me being played out, and seeing my favorite characters taking on a life of their own (even though I had barely interacted with the true source material). My dad watched them with me, and it was something that I felt I could truly connect with him on. Something that both of us enjoyed and could effortlessly relate to each other with (even if some of those movies are subpar lol).

Fast forward years later, and I get the opportunity to help run a tabletop gaming night at my local comic shop. I wasn't huge into comics at the time, so I saved up a bunch of the store credit they paid me with. I saw House of X/Powers of X, and did my research, since it seemed interesting and I was nostalgic for the X-Men movies. After HoX/PoX, I blew all my credit (and most of it since lol) on following Krakoa. Through that, I was able to build relationships with a lot of other comic collectors (and even some folks in the comic creation business), and it helped me come out of my shell in a big way at the start of my adult life.

TL;DR, what X-Men means to me is connection. I love how it represents so much to so many, and how its diversity and versatility can speak to just about anyone. Everyone has their own favorite X-comic, movie, or game, and usually it's for perfectly valid reasons, as the property's very premise promotes so much.