I could say that most of my young, college nights were filled with twerking on a brick wall in a dank bar or stealing the construction signs on North Campus, or even drunkenly crying on the side of a street while waiting in the line at Cane's. I could say that’s what most of my nights consist of, but I think I’ll be honest and say most of my nights involve regret. More specifically, regretting the decision to shove that sixth piece of pepperoni pizza in my mouth. That, and needing to shower from the dried globs of grease when I wake up with half of that sixth slice of pizza still in my mouth the next day. I lead a pretty tame life, so when I got the chance to spontaneously plan a trip to New York City one random weekend with some of the coolest people, I couldn’t help but jump at the chance.

My friend and I won tickets to the Global Citizen Festival in order to see Coldplay, Beyoncé, Ed Sheeran, Tori Kelly, Pearl Jam and tons of other celebrities for free. Of course, Coldplay stole the show (sorry Beyoncé). The night before we were supposed to leave for NYC, two of my roommates had the opportunity to come with us and in less than 24 hours we were off to a random trip to New York. More importantly, I was less than 24 hours from being surrounded by famous celebrities such as Stephen Colbert, Hugh Jackman, and Katie Holmes as well as the artists performing. What would I do if I met one of them? Cry? Excessively laugh? Throw up? Probably not the last one, but still it was an option.

Sadly, I did not get to meet anyone at the music festival due to “security” reasons or something like that, but my chance was not over. I had found out that Josh Radnor (Ted Mosby from How I Met Your Mother) was performing a small comedy show the next night. My friends and I bought tickets and sat in the front row. Not only did I make eye contact with Josh Radnor multiple times, but he even referred to me and my friends a couple of times throughout the show. Afterwards, we decided to wait outside and see if Josh (yes, we are on a first name basis) would come and meet us. This was my time to think about what I wanted to say to the main character of the show that I have seen every. single. episode. at least nine times. Is he single? Is 'love at first sight' a thing? Maybe I’ll tell this story at our wedding?

I see him walk out and he extends his arm out towards me. I literally melt as we shake hands, but yet no words come out. Here I am, an average, loud mouthed girl getting the chance to meet the Josh Radnor and now is the time my brain chooses to hate me and FREEZE. At this point I just need to say SOMETHING. Eventually, I come back to reality and we exchange a polite conversation before we take a picture together and I proceed to literally run away from him. I can’t believe I ruined my one opportunity of making Josh Radnor laugh and fall in love with me. Ok, the last part of that sentence was unrealistic…probably. Still, no fun joke along the lines of “I would’ve stolen you a whole orchestra”. Damn it, why didn’t I bring a yellow umbrella or I should’ve worn red cowboy boots. Just saying the phrase “legend-wait for it-dary” would’ve been better even if it was overused.

And that kids, is how I messed up meeting up Josh Radnor. After going through such an embarrassing celebrity encounter, I decided that I would never be so unprepared if I ever get the chance to meet someone famous. So, when I inevitably meet Taylor Swift I know exactly what to say. I’m going to go up to her, shake her hand, say “hey, what’s your favorite cleaning product?” and then she’ll answer with her favorite cleaning product and I’ll go “Oh I though it would be the SWIFFer”. Drops. Mic.