A Love Story

Mona at Mona's Musings mentioned writing our own love story, and it put me in mind of this entry I wrote on another blog on August 28, 2008 (Josh Day).

My Josh: A Love Story

I do not like fads. It is a well-known fact about me. I was the girl who refused to fall for the Harry Potter craze and said I wouldn't read the series until all 7 were published. True to my word, I waited until last fall. I resisted reading Twilight for months, until I met the author and was impressed by her speech at the BYU Symposium. Pretty much, I'm very against being a lemming.

In the summer of 2002, I moved home...to work two jobs and recover from an emotionally trying semester. One of the jobs was a library page. I helped close the library most of the weeknights. As I was driving my parents car, I had no music of my own to play. So I settled for the radio. And as nauseating as Delilah is, I liked many of the songs that she played in her evening radio programs. I began to notice on my way home from work--driving in the dark and with my thoughts winding down--this one song was often playing on Delilah's program. I always came in on it in the middle. And never did I hear who it was when the song was over. All I knew was that this voice that was singing was amazing and I knew I had not heard the like of it before--not even in Cleveland Lynch! The song itself was pretty nice, too. It was terrible--I couldn't embrace true fan-dom of this voice because I had no idea who it was! Plus, there was just the one song played over and over. Perhaps it was a one-hit wonder.

I returned to school--where I never listened to the radio--and figured my evenings of hearing The Voice console me were now over. Before the semester started, I was standing in line at the BYU Bookstore when my musically-inclined ear tuned in to the faint music playing over the speaker. In my great and happy surprise, I loudly blurted out loud, "It's him!" But it was a different song! And the woman next to me said, "Oh, yeah. That's Josh Groban. He sang at the Olympics." Four thoughts went through my head:

1. A name! At last!
2. He's real!
3. He's not a one-hit wonder!
4. How in the world did I miss that in the Olympics--I was in the same state!?!?

Well, whatever the shock and surprise and whatnot, I had a name and I knew he sang two songs. And that was all I had to hold in my heart for some time. At Thanksgiving, I had to leave early to make it to the extended family dinner. I hate missing the Macy's Parade. In the...family, that is "Heidi's thing." So I stuck a tape in to film the rest of it to watch later. It was the Spirit prompting, for later that evening as I was watching, the upcoming float was announced and they said "Josh Groban!" I'm sure I squealed. I saw him for the first time. And my four thoughts were:

1. The Voice! In the flesh!
2. He's real!
3. It's "the other song!"
4. He's...really not that cute. Oh well! Who cares with a voice like that?

So, now I had heard the voice, learned the name, and seen the person. Who could ask for anything more? Um. Well, I'm ashamed to say I didn't. But glad to say I didn't settle there. The following Valentine's Day, I went to dinner with a friend...whom I hadn't seen in years. Somehow his name came up in the conversation. This friend worked for Circuit City and said she received free CDs all the time and that name sounded familiar. Needless to say, she gave it to me! No case, no insert, nothing. Just the CD. And it was golden.

My roommate and I became obsessed with the CD! She even went online to download the Songlist for me so I knew what I was listening to. I was not disappointed. I had not chosen wrong in falling in love with The Voice. It was only after I received the CD and came to memorize the thing that I learned this boy had been pretty famous for a while. And stepping back, I could see that he was a fad in his own right. I was immediately grateful that the Lord introduced him to me in a way that I would not immediately "shun" him before giving him a chance.

Why such a blessing? Because it has been Josh's music and its messages that have pulled me through some of the most difficult times in my life. I always heard a song that was just what I needed at that time in my life. Like "You are Loved" when I was feeling so low and forgotten and trodden down. Both SLC concerts came at highly needed times in my life, and were also perfect graduation presents to myself. And, yes, as I have never been ashamed to admit, I wrote to Josh as well. A few times. He was my objective person that I felt a connection to through his music. You may laugh, but I was the one who wrote more than once chastising him for not originally putting SLC on his AWAKE tour. And when the second round came, lo and behold, what city had been added? And what city was chosen for the DVD? Yeah, I know. I probably had nothing to do with any of that. But I at least let my voice be heard.

Well, even in spite of the fad that can be Josh, I soon came to learn that so many had never heard of him! And one of my missions in life became clear: To Spread the Joy of Josh, One Person at a Time. I think I've been getting there. My father is now a huge fan. As is my [aforementioned] roommate.... Overflowed CK with it. Wore Caleb down to it. Probably annoyed the rest of S308 with it. Took Jess on "a date to meet this guy..." And have probably inundated all the blog readers with too much talk of him. In this entry at least. So I'll end.