Top 13 of 2013, Day #10: The Music of My Heart

Day(s) #10: August 25-29, 2013

Strap yourselves into the DeLorean, ladies and gentlemen - we're double time traveling for Day #10!

Back in August, for one glorious week, I got to revisit one of the most exciting periods of my life - The *NSYNC Era. Now, in the interest of full disclosure for all my e-friends out there who don't know me in "real life," it should be noted that I've never TRULY closed the book on the *NSYNC era. I've proudly kept my boys on my heavy rotation playlist, and it's not unusual for me to find a way to make *NSYNC relevant to conversation on a regular basis. Normally, however, I'm aware that I'm living somewhere in 1999, and there aren't a lot of people there with me.

That changed in August. For one week, a rumor fueled the teenybopper groupie within not only me, but pretty much the entire WORLD, feeding her with the swoony gossip that I haven't truly felt since their "hiatus" began a decade ago. All of a sudden, people CARED about my boys as much as I did! All of a sudden, people were interested in the stories they typically tune out of! All of a sudden, everyone agreed that *NSYNC should never have left me!

Uh, us. Should never have left US. That's what I said.

Artifacts.

Anyway, the days leading up to *NSYNC's reunion at the MTV VMAs were like old times for me. I had so many amazing experiences as a superfan and met some really terrific people that I've continued to stay in touch with, so any excuse to go back to those days is a welcome one for me. So much has changed in the 15 (FIFTEEN?!) years since my first encounter with my boys, but it's amazing how quickly I can be right back there in that moment, feeling the butterflies of hearing JC's voice take over an arena. One of my favorite parts of that week was revisiting the artifacts from that *NSYNC Era, the details of which I wrote about in this blog.

Especially because it happened just a few weeks after I was hit on the head with clarity (see: Day #9), I also took all of this as a sign that I had made the right decision. Back in the turn of the century (that is, circa 2000), nothing was more important to my happiness than *NSYNC.

Seriously.

Nothing.

Concerts, TRL, Meet 'n Greets...I literally don't think anything brought me more joy during that era than being in a tv studio or arena witnessing the electricity that was *NSYNC. It was the dawn of social media and the internet, as celebrities and publicists began to experiment with the power of engagement, and, because I was a young student who didn't know any better, it seemed like a great job to be in.

I still think that. But, if I'm being honest? I lost it for a few years, as my life took one of those detours, and the adrenaline fueled lifestyle of a professional working in that environment passed by me, though I'm still convinced I had the opportunity to get so much closer to it. So much. To the point where even I sometimes wonder if the life I lived for those few years was real.

But then the reunion came around. And I stood up refusing to blink, holding my breath, feeling everything I felt a decade ago, with the only difference being that I was in my living room this time, instead of watching it live on a stage a few feet in front of me.

And to top it all off? *NSYNC let the entire fandom know about me just a few days later. With one tweet, it was all worth it.

Of all the things to be embarrassed about in this photo, I couldn't be more proud to own it.

Twitter fame doesn't last long, of course, but the excitement, for me, has had a residual effect. In a year of moments that have given me confidence in my choices, one tweet can do a lot to remind me that sometimes the right people do take notice.

My boys, as a group, have since gone back into the vault, and it might be a long time before we hear those voices live as one again, but the sweet tone of the reunion week will echo for quite some time.