Project OLLG

 
MY BIEBER EXPERIENCE. 

Everything had been leading up to this moment. Jen grabbed my hand and told me it was time to go on. The curtains opened and there he was, waiting for me.


In April of 2010, I decided to create a project called ProjectOLLG with my sister, Paulyn, and two of our friends in hopes of being OLLG at Justin's concert that July. At this time, I was only (11 or 12). We worked incessantly--tweeting thousands of people, making a Twitition with 1,078 signatures, and calling and texting radio stations. The day of the concert, we even handed out screenshots of the Twitition to crew members. That night, none of us were chosen as OLLG, but I decided that I wasn't going to give up. Seeing that girl on that stage made me so hopeful. By mid 2011, I was running the Twitter by myself. As the years passed and with each loss, I found myself working harder and harder. I began emailing, texting, and calling radio stations, news stations, and record labels. I promoted my project around my town and told people about my efforts. I also walked around with a group of friends and got 260+ signatures on a petition to be OLLG. At the end of eighth grade, I even started a side project called Letters To Ellen in attempts of meeting Justin on Ellen Degeneres’ show. Thirty-six people wrote letters for me, saying how much I deserve to meet Justin and 100 people signed a petition for me to be on the show. I collected all the letters in a binder and sent them off. I unfortunately never got a response and I was devastated, but that didn’t stop me. In August of 2012, I posted a video titled Project OLLG. In it, is personal footage of me throughout the years supporting Justin and almost everything I have done for my project. Little did I know that this video would later change my life. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-Nrf8h5Vbo&feature=plcp

When I found out Justin was coming back to the Bay Area for the second leg of his tour, I begged my parents to let me go, but we weren’t lucky with getting tickets. I set a countdown on my phone 150 days before the concert that said “YOU WILL BE OLLG”. I used it as motivation to get tickets and luckily enough, my sister and I found tickets the Thursday before the show for really cheap! On June 21, 2013, I had a trending day. Dozens of people tweeted #JustinMeetCeryna. The crew didn’t notice it so I had another trending day on June 25th, the day before the concert. This time around, I got more tweets, but the crew still didn’t notice. At this point, all the radio contests for meet and greets had already ended and I was gradually accepting the fact that I wasn’t going to finally meet Justin, but I was still grateful to even be seeing him. The next morning (the 26th and day of the show), people were helping me tweet Scooter. Shelly (@BlackOLLG) recommended that I send the crew my Project OLLG video instead of a picture I had been sending around with a list of everything I have done so I took her advice and tweeted it to the crew a few times. A few minutes later, Justin tweeted: “Who’s going to be OLLG tonight?”. So many people began tweeting Justin and telling him that it should be me. It was incredible. A few minutes later, my parents told me to get off my phone and get ready to leave for the venue. As I was putting on my makeup, my parents were teasing being OLLG and saying “that would be the day”. I shrugged it off and after I finished my makeup, I checked my phone which was blowing up with notifications. All I could see were tweets saying “SCOOTER TWEETED YOU”. My heart instantly dropped to my stomach. I went on his profile and saw that Scooter had tweeted me “I’m glad that you never gave up on your dreams. :)”. At this point, I was screaming and crying. I ran to the computer in my older sister’s room and checked my DMs. Scooter messaged me for my contact info and told me he wanted to meet me. ME. Of all people. Me. To add onto the excitement, I saw that Steve had tweeted me to check my DMs also. I braced myself for what he had to say. He was giving me 3 meet and greets to the show. My sister, Paulyn, (@QueenPaulyn) and even my dad and I started crying. After 3 years of hard work, I would finally be meeting Justin Bieber.

I arrived at HP Pavillion at around 2pm and met up with Taylor (@taylorstclaire) and her friend, Lauren. My sister and I hung out with them the whole day and tried looking for Scooter everywhere, but we couldn’t find him. My dad met up with us later and all five of us got our meet and greet bracelets and got in line. The meet and greets had to be in groups so we all decided to be in the same picture. We waited in a hot stairwell for over an hour until they led us to the backstage area where the meet and greets would be taking place. I was oddly calm at this point. It felt so unreal. While we were in line, Kenny walked by and I asked him if he had seen Scooter. He said that he was in the curtained tent where Justin was taking pictures. Sure enough, there was Scooter on the other side of the barricade which divided the tent entrance and exit. We all yelled out to him but got in trouble by security. Once we reached the front of the line, I got Scooter’s attention and said “Hi Scooter. I’m ProjectOLLG. You told me you wanted to meet me.” Scooter was smiling so wide and told me that it was nice to meet me. He put out his hand for me to shake but I pulled him in for a hug and he was like “I’ll meet you on the other side.” Scooter opened the tent entrance for me and I hugged him again. My group followed behind me, but all of a sudden Scooter said “Wait. Someone take her purse! She’s taking this one by herself.” He walked me up to Justin and said “Justin, I’m taking this one with you. This is ProjectOLLG. She has been trying so hard to meet you.” Justin was smiling and said “Wow. Really?” Even though it was so dark in there, I could still see how perfect he was. I hugged him and I said. “Thank you so much for everything you do.” He was honestly so humbled and said “Thank you so much.” And then, I told him something along the lines of “I know that there has been a lot of negative things in the media lately, but I want you to know that I know you are a good guy.” Justin was so taken back by this and kept thanking me. I honestly thought that I wouldn’t be able to speak, but there’s something about Justin and Scooter that just made me feel so.... calm. The whole time we were talking, the camera kept going off. Scooter then said “A lot of fans around the world would appreciate this right now”. We posed for our picture then security started leading me to the exit. Justin called out to me and said “WAIT. GIVE ME A HUG.” I hugged him then waited for my group to take their picture with him. I stood by Scooter and I thanked him for everything. When it was time to go, instead of saying goodbye, Scooter said “I’ll see you later.” My heart started pounding like crazy. I had no idea what he meant. A million thoughts flashed in my head. I walked out of the tent, practically hyperventilating. This all literally happened in two minutes, but it felt like a lifetime. 

My dad, Paulyn, and I said goodbye to Taylor and Lauren and found our seats which were section 102. Row 22. Seats 1 to 3. I chose seat 1 which was an aisle seat. We got there just in time for Hot Chelle Rae’s performance, but I honestly was in shock and could hardly function. I just went on Twitter and posted about everything that happened. When Justin’s set started, my sister and I danced and sang our hearts out. Nothing else in the world mattered because my dream had come true after all this time. My sister and I kept checking Twitter just in case Scooter DMed me, but after a while, my phone started dying so I put it in my pocket. Before Justin sang Beauty and A Beat, he made a speech how beautiful the audience looked. My sister turned to me and asked if One Less Lonely Girl was the next song and I said “No. I think Beauty and A Beat is next then One Less Lonely Girl.” She asked me if I was okay, both of us thinking the OLLG had already been picked. I told her I was more than fine and so grateful for everything that had already been given to me. I was jamming out to the intro of the song, when all of a sudden, I heard my sister yell “CERYNA!” I turned around and saw Jen standing in front of my sister. Jen showed me her phone and started scrolling through the thousands of tweets people had been sending to the crew about me. She pointed to her screen and said “Hi! Is this you? Are you Ceryna?” And I said yes! She smiled, leaned in closer to me, and asked me the question that every Belieber wants to hear: “Would you like to be the One Less Lonely Girl?” Without hesitation, I yelled “YES.” She grabbed my hand and ran me up the stairs to the lobby and down another set of stairs until we were backstage. We walked through so many doors. I was freaking out and telling her how I didn’t think this was going to happen and how grateful I was. She told me that the whole crew had watched my Project OLLG video and that they saw everyone’s tweets. She said that I deserved it after working so hard. Once we got to the back of the stage, I saw Kenny and told him that in October, I tried giving him my ProjectOLLG binder (it was a binder with copies of Letters to Ellen, Twitlongers, petitions, pictures, etc.) He said he remembered me and congratulated me. Jen then walked me over to Alfredo and he also congratulated me. Jen and Fredo were so nice. They didn’t treat me like a fan. They tried making me laugh as much as possible and were just so sweet. They led me to the bottom of the steps and I could hear One Less Lonely Girl starting. I almost walked through the curtains at the beginning of the song because I was so excited. Jen and I were talking about my video when I felt someone tap my shoulder. I turned around and there was the person I had been hoping to see “later”: Scooter. He was smiling and congratulated me. I hugged him and thanked him for everything he had done for me. Jen took my hand and walked me up the steps. One of the dancers quickly peeked over at us through the curtains and started cheering and pointing to me. Scrappy walked out of a room hidden by curtains and I immediately hugged him and he congratulated me too before he left. Jen told me to look up. Dan was looking down at me from the highest platform on the stage, waving at me. I could hear the chorus ending. Everything had been leading up to this moment. I told Jen that I didn’t know what to do or where to go and she said that the dancers would help. Jen grabbed my hand and told me it was time to go on. The curtains opened and there he was, waiting for me. Jen let go of my hand and I think it might have been Luke who took my hand and walked me over the Justin. Justin took my hand and led me to the throne. He sat me down, stroked my face and then my hair, and put the crown on my head. Justin sat down on the side of the throne and hugged me and I hugged him back making the crown fall off. He kept stroking my thigh and my face. I felt like I was dreaming. He got up, stood in front of me, grabbed my hands, put them on his shoulders, and let his hands run down my sides and legs. We swayed back and forth for a few seconds before we separated and he took my hands, made me stand up, and then me down the steps of the throne. I didn’t expect this at all so I almost tripped when getting down. I thought we were going to walk down the catwalk at first so I kept walking and he let me go in front of him. All of a sudden, I felt his arms around my waist and he pulled me in closer. We rocked back and forth for a few seconds before he turned me around by my waist to face him, making my crown fall once again. (I’m clumsy okay.) I put my hands on his shoulders and we slow danced. I rested my forehead against his and we looked in each other’s eyes. None of this felt real. As stupid as this sounds, I looked down at his tattoos for a second, telling myself that if they weren’t there, I was probably dreaming, but they were there--the slightest detailing and shading visible. This was very much real and so was he. The person I had looked up to since April of 2009, the person that helped me through hardship, the person whose music I always turned to especially when people weren’t there for me, the person I had spent three years trying to meet and thank for everything was in my arms and I was in his. The chances of being One Less Lonely Girl that night was a one in 17,000 chance and I was that ONE. I kept telling myself that I’d wake up any second from this dream, but this was all reality. This was real. We pulled each other in for a hug and I just felt so comfortable and safe. I didn’t feel like I was hugging Justin Bieber, the superstar that the media *cough TMZ* talks so negatively about. This was the real Justin-- the most humble, kind, gentle, normal, and even flirtatious person I have ever met. I had first seen this side of him personally during the meet and greets and even as we danced, I just could tell how much he cares about his Beliebers. When the song ended, Justin asked me “What’s your name, sweetie?”. I was in a daze and couldn’t hear him so I said “what?” He repeated himself. And I said “Ceryna!” really loudly so he could hear me over the crowd that I had practically forgotten was there. He said “Ceryna?”. Then I nodded and asked “Would you like to go backstage with me, Ceryna?” He took my hand again and we ran off stage together. We kind of kept running for a second when Jen called out to me and said “Over here!” Justin and I let go of each other’s hands and he ran into a curtained room for a clothes change. I walked over to Jen and Alfredo and all three of us were going crazy. Part of our conversation went something like this-

Me: OH MY GOD.

Jen: I don’t think he’s ever been that touchy before.

Me: He grabbed me from behind!

Fredo: You should have twerked on him!

Jen: Her dad’s here!

Fredo: OHH.

Me: I would have, but I don’t have a booty though. Asian problems.

Honestly, the whole crew was so easy to talk to. They genuinely do care about each and every single one of us. I kept thanking the both of them and Alfredo was like “Awww. You’re so cute.” I died. I thought Jen and Alfredo were taking me back to my seat, but instead, they led me into an empty dressing room, made me sit down on a couch, and they sat in front of me. Alfredo held up his camera and said “Tell me everything about your project.” I told them about the doubters and everything I had done. I also mentioned how amazing Justin, his crew, and his fans are and that everything was possible because of them. After Alfredo stopped recording, the three of us took two selfies for Jen to post on Twitter--one with all of us sticking our tongues out and another with us smiling. We walked out of the backstage area and back into the arena. Justin was already singing Believe when we got out there. Alfredo turned to me and said “THIS ONE IS FOR YOU. BELIEVEEEE.” The three of us ran up the stairs in between the aisles and as we did, so many people called out to me. Jen turned to me and said “YOU’RE FAMOUS.” We went through the lobby again and then let Alfredo walk through the door leading to my aisle. Once he was across from my row, he pointed his camera back up to me. Everyone turned to me and I was ambushed. I ran up to my sister and hugged her. So many people crowded around us and started taking pictures of me. Jen told me to go hug my dad so I broke through the crowd of people and jump hugged my dad. More and more people came up to me. Some people even started reaching for the crown and were patting it. It was absolute chaos. I waved goodbye to Jen and Alfredo and then they left. I turned my phone back on to tweet that I had been picked as OLLG, but it seemed like the rest of the world already knew. For the rest of the show, people asked me for pictures. Someone in front of me kept casually taking videos of me then Justin then me then Justin. It was really funny. When the lights turned on, my sister made me run to the parking lot. It was the craziest, but also best night of my life. I plugged my phone in in the car and started scrolling through Twitter. Jon Chu Instagrammed a picture of Justin serenading me that said “she got it.” I had dozens of new text messages, thousands of new mentions, and hundreds of unread DMs. Halfway into my ride home, Scooter tweeted “Such a great night. And @ProjectOLLG never say never :) #dreamBIG” When I got home, I didn’t feel like any of this really happened. I was in shock. My whole family and I stayed up until 1am looking at pictures and videos of me onstage. My parents told me to go to bed, but I stayed up on Twitter, unable to sleep. When I was finally about to go to bed at 2 in the morning, Justin tweeted me “Thanks for always supporting me and what u said. Meant alot”. The fact that he remembers what I told him at the meet and greets makes me so happy. He deserves to know how amazing he is. This all seems so unreal. It only hit me this morning that this actually happened when I called someone and told them about what happened and repeated the ten words that changed my life that Jen had said to me the night before: “Would you like to be the One Less Lonely Girl?”. These emotions come in waves. I just can't help but crying because my dream came true.

ANYONE can be picked as OLLG regardless of their shape, size, ethnicity, age, seat location, etc. I’m so tired of people saying that OLLGs are all skinny, blonde, supermodels that sit on floor. In case you haven’t noticed, beauty takes on many forms. Take this from a 15 year old girl who used to always beat herself up over her appearance and had seats in lower level. I hadn’t felt more beautiful and special in my entire life. Just because you don’t look a certain way, it doesn’t mean that you can’t get picked. 

Justin and his crew are such kind hearted, selfless people. Team Bieber is amazing. When I woke up that morning, I didn’t know that any of that was going to happen to me. For the three years that this project has been active, there have been so many times when I just wanted to quit, but in the end, I knew that all this hard work would be worth it. So if you’re at a point in your life where you just want to give up on your dreams, goals, or yourself, please don’t. Miracles happen every day and mine happened 24 hours ago. I am so blessed to have had such an incredible opportunity. Even as I type this, I still can’t believe that this happened to me. When I look at the pictures, videos, and gifs all over so many social media websites, I can not even begin to express my gratitude toward Justin, his crew, and all of you. You helped turn this dream into a reality. I love you all from the bottom of my heart. I hope you never give up on your dreams because anything is possible if you work hard and June 26th was proof of that. Thank you all so much. 


I hope that all of your dreams come true,

Ceryna
 
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Kommentarer
Postat av: Therese Björkman

sv, tack tjejen! vill du göra bloglovin byte? :)

2013-07-09 @ 14:02:45
URL: http://theresebjorkmans.blogg.se/
Postat av: Anonym

sv tack tjejen vill du göra bloglovin byte? :)

Svar: Okej :)
Rebecca

2013-07-09 @ 14:03:33
URL: http://tessies.nu

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