THIS IS A POST ENTIRELY ABOUT ONE DIRECTION AND IF YOU DON’T LIKE THEM THEN DON’T READ THIS, YOU WILL HATE IT AND IT WILL WASTE YOUR TIME. THANKS. P.S. this is just a one off post so come back on Thursday for a usual ‘Channon life update’.
I first met Niall Horan and Zayn Malik with my friend Jess in December 2011!
I finally got to meet Harry last Wednesday!
Louis and Moi on Wednesday!
Liam was so lovely on Wednesday!
What do One Direction mean to me?
I get asked this question daily and for me it is incredibly difficult to answer. I don’t need to justify why I like them to anyone, as music taste is entirely personal. However, this post is mainly for my own benefit as recently I’ve been asking myself “What do they actually mean to me? Why am I still a fan four years on? If I tried to explain why I like them, what would I say?”.
I was fortunate enough to meet One Direction after four years (of obsessively fangirling over them) on Wednesday at a secret book signing in Camden, London. They were incredibly lovely, down to earth and exactly like I had imagined them to be after all these years. I will say, despite practising my (witty, highly hilarious) opening speech to Harry thousands (quite literally) of times, I ended up freezing and making an idiot of myself (#fangirlproblems). Although most importantly I got to thank them personally, which means a lot to me.
The whole experience has made me (overly) reflective of everything that I have been through in the past few years (holding back the tears here, I’m pathetic okay?).
I feel like I have grown up with them, as I made my One Direction themed twitter account on January the 6th 2011 after using my personal account throughout X-Factor. Since then I have gained 70,000 followers and made some life-long best friends. I have also grown from 14 to 18 and I still cry every time they are on TV (some things never change)! They are like having older brothers that I have never even met but know everything about. That is the hardest thing to explain about being such a dedicated fan, the feeling of knowing someone without them knowing that you exist.
One Direction are always there for me, and yes, you are allowed to laugh at that comment. But (I knew you were expecting the all-important ‘but’…) in our lives we have many things that we would consider important to us individually, whether it be: sport, art, hobbies in general, an inspirational figure, a band or a singer – it can be anything that makes you happy. Well, this boyband makes me happy.
Back in 2010 I was experiencing one of the toughest phases of my life so far. I was depressed, unhappy and overall pretty much ready to give up on everything I had ever dreamed of. Everything that had ever meant something to me was smashed into pieces, most of which I am still trying to place together now. For months everything spiralled into a blur, a giant bottomless pit of darkness and I felt so alone even though I was surrounded by people that cared about me. It was at that point I found One Direction. They were just five lads on X-Factor who were similar in age to me and living their dreams. They were happy and always on hand to cheer me up when I felt like crying. I was 14 and had finally something that could help me escape from everything. From that moment onwards I put my life into everything 1D, the online family accepted me for me and gradually I began to smile again. My twitter friends were always there to listen and make me laugh on skype, they couldn’t judge me because they didn’t know me in real life. And that is the reason why I care so much when it comes to talking about One Direction. They changed everything for the better.
They symbolise to me personally the happy times within an extremely dark period of my life. *be right back I need a tissue*.
Anyway, I would never have guessed their success nor would I have predicted to still be a part of the One Direction family four years later. Even now I turn to One Direction for a lot of things, but particularly when I am feeling down. They always make me smile. That might sound a bit sad to most of you reading this but that is because you just don’t understand, which is fine, I don’t expect you to.
I don’t listen to their music all day every day, in the same way I don’t expect all my friends to like them (90% of my friends actually hate them, but that is okay). All I’m saying is before you judge someone, ask yourself why they might have that particular interest. I didn’t really know what they meant to me until now. On the face of it all ‘liking One Direction’ seems extremely superficial, as many like them for their looks, or their pop-music but for me I think it’s the journey that I have taken with them (oh how ‘cheese on toast’).
I have grown up so much since 2010, and they have shaped in many ways the person that I am today. I am now eighteen years old, studying at university in London and chasing my dreams – which is a far cry from the place I was in before. Some of my greatest memories are largely One Direction related and yes, my poor grandchildren will never here the end of my stories about the five boys who took the world by a storm.
We all have different passions, and this is mine. The real question is, what are yours? Leave a comment below!
C x
Just keep chasing your dreams.
For my One Direction twitter page click here!
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