This past weekend I had the opportunity to travel down to Chicago for the B96 Jingle Bash. While I was there, I put it upon myself to go and try to meet one of my favorite artists, Shawn Mendes. The mission turned out to be a success and I ended up meeting him twice (and didn't even cry, thank you) outside his hotel in downtown Chicago after waiting several hours for him to come out. Since I've been back, the most frequently asked question I've gotten is, "was it worth it?" Multiple people in my dorm hall have asked me this, my coworkers have asked me, hell, even the doorman at the hotel right after I met Shawn asked me this. This isn't the first time I've gone out to try and meet an artist before, and it's most definitely not the first time I've been asked if it was worth it. This question had me thinking, so here is my answer to if it's worth it or not.

I used to wonder to myself, "Why do people spend so much money to go to football games?" I mean, tickets are expensive, you sit out in the cold for hours on end, and you don't even know for sure if your team will win or not. But then I realized, it's not just the game itself, it's the experience as a whole. It's the adventure to drive to the stadium, it's getting to hang out with your friends and make new ones, it's the constant rollercoaster of your team being ahead or falling behind, it's getting to eat cheap concession stand food, it's getting to laugh with your friends and yell for your team and just having an all around good time.

This past Saturday, I stood out in 20 degree weather in downtown Chicago outside of Shawn's hotel for hours on end, spending wads of money on parking ramps and tollways, without even knowing if I'd meet him or not. I couldn't even feel my fingers or toes anymore, but I still found myself having a good time. Why? Because it was the adventure of it all. It was the 8 hour drive down to Chicago from my university, singing at the top of my lungs and trying to learn all the lyrics to Eminem's "The Real Slim Shady." It was driving into downtown Chicago from my hotel alone trying to meet Shawn but leaving downtown afterwards with a car full of other girls like we'd been friends for years. It was the constant roller coaster of being upset thinking I wouldn't be able to meet him followed by the excitement of getting one step closer. It was standing outside eating cold food we found in our purses and pockets as our meal for lunch. And finally, it was overwhelming joy of getting what you waited so long for.

A little while back, I read a quote along the lines of this: "I hope there are days where you fall in love with being alive." And I thought to days like when I met Shawn Mendes. I thought to the days where Niall Horan from One Direction was in Minnesota and my friend and I would wake up at 4 in the morning to get ready and travel the hour to get to the cities from her house, and stumble back into her room at 1 o'clock that night. I thought to when we found a handful of friends and played Heads Up to try and distract us from how cold we were, or how we were freaking out in the car and I was trying to shush everyone because I had just received a call about my new job interview. I thought to the day where I met Ashton from 5 Seconds of Summer in Minneapolis and I got all sorts of messages from everyone saying how happy they were for me, and how happy I was for myself, and how happy I get every time I go back to the cities and pass the place where I met him. It's days like those where I feel the happiest I could ever be.

So the answer is yes, it was worth it, and it will always be worth it, because those are days I'll remember for a long time and are days where I fall in love with being alive.