It was a hot night that Independence Day in 1975. Diane Chambers had just graduated from her prep school with full honors and was well on her way to Boston University with a full academic scholorship. She had been the valedictorian and the people in attendence could vow that she gave the longest winded speech in the school's history. Diane didn't really care, she was proud of herself even though it seemed nobody else was. She knew for sure that her father was proud of her. He had been so sick with heart disease that he couldn't even make it to the ceremony. Her mother had come for both of them.

"I'm very proud of you, dear," her mother said with a gentle pat on her hand and a smile . Helen Chambers was not the most affectionate mother ever.

"Thank you, Mummy," Diane said as she smiled back at her mother. That little glimpse of maternal love made her feel special. Yet, the warmth wouldn't last long. Her mother had always had somewhere to go, someone to see, so off she would go and once again, leave her daughter with herself.

Diane had decided that on this night she was going to go out on the town. She wasn't really going to go out drinking at the bars even though she was eighteen now and able to if she chose. She just wanted to lose herself with the crowds of the city in Boston. Diane may have been lonely but maybe she wouldn't have to feel so alone. Her father was asleep by now and of course her mother was off somewhere; they wouldn't have cared that she was gone.

Diane's home wasn't far from the historical sights that speckled Boston. How she would love the field trips and the old city folklore! She felt that these places were a means of escape, an escape to the past. History, literature, art, it didn't matter how Diane lost herself, as long as she did, even just for a minute or an hour.

As she kept walking, the more people would crowd around. Most of them would be walking out of the bars and already drunk out of their minds. Diane didn't understand why anyone would want to be that way and maybe she didn't want to know those people. Then again, who was she to judge? She decided that if she had the choice mask her pain in education, others should have the choice to mask theirs in alcohol.

The fireworks had started just as she rounded the corner to Beacon Hill. She looked at her watch and couldn't believe how late it was. She looked up from her watch and found a couple of guys running up the stairs. Diane looked to see that she was in front of Melville's Restaurant and the stairs lead to a bar called Cheers.

"Hey, Sammy, hurry up!" The first guy shouted to the second guy.

"Okay," the second guy "Sammy" replied. Diane wasn't able to get a good look at the first guy but a white firework went off and she was able to see "Sammy's" face. He saw her, too. The firework seemed to take forever to dim but Diane didn't mind. He was a tall, handsome man and for a moment, he was looking at her. He flashed a smile and she smiled back.

"Yo, Sammy!" Oh, that man with him was obnoxious!

"Okay," Sammy said finally running to catch up with him. That smile had never left Diane's face as she turned and headed for home. That was an electrifying moment. She had felt an immeadiate connection to him and he must have felt it, too because he wouldn't had stared and smiled back at her like he did. She hoped and prayed that they would one day, somehow, be reunited. There was something about that man that made her feel special. Diane Chambers, the young woman who wanted to lose herself, got found in they eyes of Sam Malone.