Calling Doctor Jones
September 23, 2018 · Posted in Personal
I was one of about 20 lucky fans that got to go backstage with Aqua after their show last night. Earlier in the day I had seen Lene at the mall and I was so mad at myself because I was too scared and anxious to go up and talk to her; I had missed out on an opportunity to meet this incredible woman that I have loved and admired since I was little. I was scrolling through the group’s tagged photos on Instagram while I was waiting to go to the show and I discovered that they brought a group of fans backstage the previous night. I was determined to be one of those lucky fans. After they finished performing they stated that they would be bringing some fans backstage and to wait at the left of the stage if you wanted to be one of them. I waited there for a little while, as did many other fans. And then people from the crew told everybody to leave because nothing was happening. I started to leave, disappointed, but I was okay with it because during the show I had several interactions with Lene: I held her hand during “Happy Boys & Girls”, she put the microphone up to my mouth during ”Doctor Jones” and I held her hand for a second time. We also made eye contract numerous times and when she was speaking and asked if anyone knows what song they’re about to perform, I screamed the title and she said “somebody does”.
But then I turned around and saw Lene standing to the left of the stage. I ran up to her and she told me that I could go backstage with them. I hugged her and told her that I had seen her earlier at the mall and she told me that she had recognized me. We all went backstage and we socialized a bit and then went to take photos and sign autographs. I hugged Rene and asked him to sign the shirt that I was wearing. I then asked the same of Lene and we had a little moment about the spelling of my name. She didn’t completely understand what I was saying, so Rene ended up writing my name on the shirt. He spelled it incorrectly, but I didn’t care and said “you can spell it however you want”. We took the photograph that you see here and then I chatted with Lene a little bit more. She thanked me for being such a devoted fan and said that she noticed how I sang along to all of the words. I hugged her again, she wished me well and then I left. The disappointment that I had suffered earlier in the day ended up being a blessing. It’s not easy suffering from social anxiety and it has prevented me from missing out on a lot of opportunities in my life, but I was determined to act exactly how I wanted to during the show and to not care about what anyone else might think (or rather what I think that they think). Prozzäk’s final song “Be As” drove this message home for me. I would have never thought in a million years that I would have ever seen Aqua live in concert, let alone meet them. Yesterday was honestly the best day of my life.
I’m a firm believer that everything in life happens for a reason. I was so mad at myself because Lene was sitting right there, just a few feet away from me, and I did nothing. But the universe had bigger plans for me than that. If I had never seen her at the mall, I probably would have not been as engaged in the show as I was. Not because I didn’t wanna sing and dance along, but because my social anxiety would have prevented me from doing so. Not only did I get to see, meet and hang out with one of my favourite bands, I also had a very important life lesson. And I couldn’t be more grateful.