As a liquid crystal researcher, I was delighted to attend the first Optics of Liquid Crystals meeting, chaired by Professor Santamato and held in Napoli, Italy 25 years ago in 1986. Over the ensuing years, I was fortunate to present papers at following OLC meetings, and had the opportunity to serve in organization and advisory committees. To celebrate the OLC's 25th year anniversary, I have provide commentary on the early OLC meetings followed by a review on the optical field induced Freedericksz transition and the intrinsic optical bistability, geometrical optics approximation, generalized geometrical optics approximation and the 2 x 2 matrix, and also the progress in the wide-viewing angle LCDs and multi-domain vertical alignment LCDs.