How Has Magic Changed Your Life?

I had a man walk up to me yesterday after I finished a set and introduced himself and then said, without warning:

"So, how has magic changed your life?" 

I was taken aback. I really hadn't expected to trade philosophies on life with some random spectator on the streets of Santa Monica. It took me a moment to form a response, and the only words I could come up with were:

"Well, I went to school to be a lawyer and now I'm here."

"I guess that says it all then," he replied.

But it got me thinking: how has magic changed my life? Really, how has it? It's true that I did enter college expecting to continue to law school before discovering magic, but that's really kind of a cop-out isn't it? I suppose there are a ton of ways my life has been changed, I've been changed.

To start with, I never look at things the way other people do. I see containers and fabrics and knick-knacks and random things and my immediate thought is "How can I use that?" or "That would be perfect for...". I also glean things from movies. If something fantastic happens I always wonder "Can I recreate that?" So in a way, magic has changed how I precieve the world, changed the way I experience it.

But how else? Magic has given me an entirely different mindset on things. When I go thinking about magic, I almost never think of it as a hobby or a fun thing to do. To me, it is an art. I think of the ways that a show can influence people, how the beauty of a show can inspire people, how magic can show fundimental truths about our lives.

So how has magic changed me? How has it shaped me and my way through life? These are all the wrong questions. The right question is:

How has it not?

Cameron Rivers, Kings To You