We were sitting in the car, all ready for the day. We had spent the hours before getting ready in our dresses, putting on makeup, and fixing our hair. We left the house in our somewhat warm clothes, not knowing how the weather would turn out. But we weren’t prepared for what lie ahead of us for the next five hours.

The car door opens with a creak and closes with a slam. There is a quick chorus of “Thank You’s” to Mr. E, who drove us to the arena. As soon as we walk out of the shade, the sun hits us and warms our bodies on this cold winter day. We look around and see that we aren’t the first people here, but thankfully, there are only three other girls here. We nod a quick “Hello” and then start to walk around to scope out the place we will be standing for quite a while. It’s a simple parking lot with a few cars, two tour buses, and one police car. The man in the police car was a fat man, who was very friendly, but also made fun of us. He was standing outside as a security guard for the arena and later on in the day he went to McDonald’s and teased us with his food, which was very rude, considering at that point we were all starving. We continued to walk around but still keep a secure place in the front row of the barricade. During this time, we took many pictures, laughed a lot, and tried to stay as warm as we could.

The cold wind blows and the six of us either shiver or try to hide our coldness by laughing it off. Girls began to arrive, equipped with Snuggies© and warm blankets. The girl next to me actually came from Indiana. In crowds like these, when I usually don’t know many of the people around me, I try to be friendly and talk to them so that I am not bored or lonely when I am standing outside at concerts for hours at a time. As I glanced around at the girls being dropped off by their parents or coming on their own, I became jealous of them because, here we are, standing here in our dresses and there they are, warming up in their cars, drinking hot chocolate, and smothered in blankets. These girls were so lucky that their parents would actually come out to wait with them. My mom just told me to go with my friends and to stay safe. The girls that came with me were Elisabeth, Bizzy, Katie, Emily, and my sister, Abby. We have gone to other concerts together, so we know each other pretty well and we weren’t afraid of being embarrassed if we said something stupid or anything like that. I look up into the sky and yell to them, “Hey guys! Look! The sun is coming out!” They all sigh and try to get as warm as they can by blowing warm air into their hands or standing where the sun is directly shining. Even though the sun came out, we were still the coldest people standing there.

“Yes! Mrs. B is here! Thank God!” Elisabeth announced.

“Yayy!” the rest of us rejoice.

“My mom was only fifteen minutes away from here, eating lunch with a friend, so she told me that she would stop by and let us warm up in her car and she also brought us some McDonald’s.” responded Emily.

Since Abby was wearing ballet flats, she immediately ran to the car and got in, and Emily and Elisabeth followed. But, Katie, Bizzy, and I decided to stay out in the cold to save our spots in the front row of the barricade because by then we had been waiting there since twelve o’clock, and it had been three hours since then. There were more than fifty girls there and each and every one of them would love to have the spot where we were standing. They offered to switch in ten minutes but we said that we would stick it out and stay outside the whole time. After at least a half hour, they came out and brought us chicken wraps and hot chocolate. Sadly, the hot chocolate was cold and didn’t do such a good job of warming us up. Nobody wanted to eat the chicken wraps except for Elisabeth, so the bag of them just lay on the ground, not eaten. More police cars began to file in and they made us move the barricades farther back. My hot chocolate was on the ground and when the barricade was moved back, it had knocked it over on to the ground. It spilled and since it was so cold out, it immediately started to freeze. We noticed that more and more security guards were coming out and girls were running in by the dozen. It was almost time.

“Yes, Nick Jonas is in this tour bus.”

“AHHHHHHHH!”

“Girls, girls, please settle down.”

*snickers from the teenage girls*

This is what the reaction was when major music sensation, Nick Jonas arrived at the arena. This was the moment we had been waiting for! Since the bus was directly in front of my friends and me, we could see into it. The front window of the bus was tinted, so all we could see was a shadowy figure moving around. Nick gradually made his way out of the bus and with that, there were many screams from other girls. He started to walk towards the barricades where we were and the butterflies in my stomach fluttered as fast as the speed of light. Nick Jonas was ten feet away from me! I was so excited! Cameras were flashing, girls were crying, and he was getting closer by the minute. When he finally came to a stop in front of me, I was so nervous, all I could muster out was “Here Nick, this rose is for you.” His answer back was, “Thank you so much, you’re so sweet.” And then he gave me a quick hug. I gained the courage to ask him one more thing, for a picture. He leaned in, and put his arm around me as I snapped a quick shot. As he moved onto the next girl, I was in shock of what had just happened to me. I had just met one of the most famous actor/singers in the world. This day is a day that I will never ever forget, I learned that when you are so passionate about something and you gain courage to go for it, fight through whatever obstacles get in your way, which for me were standing outside in freezing cold weather, wearing a dress, and being pushed into the barricade multiple times by girls behind me trying to get a better look at Nick Jonas.