Saturday, October 20th, 2012. My friend Mary, my Dad, and I (Courteney) all drove down to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for the concert that would take place on Sunday, the following day. After we arrived at our hotel and got situated, there wasn’t much to do so I pulled out my laptop. At that moment I remembered that Mary and I had entered a contest through the BieberFever fan club only a few days prior, and that the winners were supposed to receive an e-mail within 24 hours before the concert. I quickly opened my inbox and froze. In my inbox sat a reply e-mail from the BieberFever fan club. My stomach dropped. I clicked on the e-mail and it read: “Congratulations, Courteney! You’re officially invited to attend the photo meet and greet TOMORROW NIGHT October 21st in Milwaukee!” I immediately went hysterical. Barely able to talk, with all the breath I had left, I screamed to Mary. “Mary! Mary! Mary! We won! We won!” “What?!?!” She panicked. She quickly darted over to the computer and read the e-mail. We both went into complete shock, dropped to the ground, and started bawling our eyes out. We couldn’t believe what we were reading. It felt like I was literally in a dream. After supporting Justin for almost four years, my dream was finally going to come true. After seeing pictures upon pictures and videos upon videos of fans meeting Justin, tomorrow night, October 21st, 2012, was finally going to be my opportunity to meet my idol. Sunday, October 21st, 2012. Today was the day that my life was going to change forever. I set my alarm for 5:30am so we could arrive to the venue early and see if anything would happen. Apparently we slept through the alarm, because I woke up and checked the time, and it was 9:30am. Mary and I jumped out of bed and started getting ready. After we were all ready to go, we went to the BMO Bradley Center, the venue where Justin would be playing. There was already a bunch of girls lined up at the gates waiting for something exciting to happen. After standing there in the cold for a few minutes, across the gate, I saw a hand wave. It was Laney (@BlazingBiebzz) and Elyse (@Fever4Biebs), the girls I had purchased tickets for to see the show that night. I ran over to them and we greeted each other. After finding out that they’d been there for quite some time already and that Justin had arrived earlier, across the distance I heard someone yell “Courteney!” I looked over and noticed that it was Brooke, (@WISimpsonizer). I waved back and after a while Mary and I went back to the other side of the gates and greeted them. We were both extremely excited because she too was meeting Justin that night with another owner on her Twitter account, Kelsey. On and off cars would enter through the gates, leave the gates, some of Justin’s dancers would enter through the gates, leave the gates. At one point, Nick DeMoura went around and took pictures with some fans. I was lucky enough to get a picture with him! Michael Vargas also did the same, and I got a picture with him as well! A little while later, Kenny rode around on a segway greeting fans. We checked our phones and noticed that it was almost 4:00pm, the time we were supposed to be lined up for the meet and greet. I was extremely anxious, nervous, excited, and just all around in complete awe! It was hard for me to take in that in a few short minutes, my dream was finally going to become a reality. Every minute the line inched its way further and closer to the doors that we would soon enter to meet Justin. Eventually, it came the time where we were next in line to go into the meet and greet room. A security guard attempted to get everyone into groups of six, which we definitely did not want to be in, because of course we all wanted to be close to Justin. We were lucky enough to get to go in as a group of four, with Mary, Brooke, Kelsey, and myself. I was happy that I got to go in with people that I knew at least. The security guard directed us to the doors and I swear to God I thought my knees were going to buckle. Directly inside the doors was a black curtain. Right next to the black curtain stood Kenny Hamilton and another guy collecting gifts and letters from fans to Justin. Earlier that day, while we were waiting out at the gates, I had written a letter to Justin that I wanted to give to him when I would meet him. Praying to God that the letter I had written to Justin would get to him safely , I handed it to the guy collecting all of the fan stuff, and asked him if he would make sure it got to Justin. He responded something like “Yes I will. I’ve been doing this for three years.” That made me feel a little better. Just as we were being escorted in through the curtain, I greeted Kenny . At that moment, my nerves took over and from then on out, I can only remember bits and pieces of what happened. Behind the curtain stood someone that I had looked up to for so many years, someone who inspires me every day to not give up, to chase my dreams, and to believe. Behind that curtain stood my idol. Behind that curtain stood Justin Bieber. My heart sped up to about a thousand miles per hour. My stomach dropped. Yet the biggest smile arose on my face. We walked over to Justin and all I remember saying was something like, “Hi Justin, nice to meet you!” I don’t even remember if I said my name. Then we took our picture. I was so worried that the picture wasn’t going to turn out well, because I don’t even remember looking at the camera. After the picture was taken, I looked back at Justin and said, “Thank you so much Justin.” Don’t quote me on this, but I’m almost positive he said something like, “Of course sweetie.” I also remember him thanking us a bunch of times. I saw one of the girls in my group ask for a hug from Justin, so I decided to also. After I hugged Justin, I thanked him again and yelled, “Good luck!” As I was walking away, I turned back for one last glance. After we all exited the curtains and made our way out, I basically broke down. The last thing I wanted to do was embarrass my self in front of Justin by crying, so I’m glad I at least kept myself together until we exited the meet and greet. I turned around to see Brooke and Kelsey talking to Alfredo. We cried and freaked out for a good fifteen minutes after that. I just couldn’t believe that I had finally gotten the opportunity to meet my inspiration. It all happened so quickly. Even though I barely got to talk to Justin and he definitely doesn’t know my name or would ever be able to recognize my face, I still feel extremely gratefully and blessed that I got the opportunity. Even though the meet and greet was over, the concert had yet to begin. We were thrilled when we got to our seats for the concert! We were sitting in section one, row SSS. There was a catwalk at the concert and our row was the last row of section one, and was directly in line with the end of the catwalk. Only section one was allowed to go up to the catwalk and stand next to it throughout the concert. They were the best seats I’ve ever had at a concert because of the catwalk. I got to touch Carly Rae Jepsen’s hand, a dancer’s hand, and had the experience to see Justin right in front of my face for a majority of the concert. I also got to touch Justin’s hand! Justin’s performance was absolutely incredible. October 21st, 2012 was my fifth Justin Bieber concert and the best at that. After the concert, we lined up by the gates again in hopes that Justin or any of the crew would come out to greet us. Unfortunately they didn’t, but we did get to see Moshe and Kenny from a distance, as well as a bunch of the other members of the crew, so that was awesome . As all of the tour buses exited through the gates and everyone started to leave the venue, I was devastated that my experience was over, but extremely happy and grateful that I got the opportunity. I know there are hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions of people out there who don’t even have the opportunity to see Justin live, so for what I’ve been given, I feel extremely blessed, fortunate, and am so grateful for. From here on out, I am going to do my best to help Beliebers all over make there dreams a reality. And if any of you reading this are in that position, I want you to know that you cannot give up. You have to stay strong, keep your head up, believe, and continue to fight for your dreams. Because one day, if you want something bad enough, it will become a reality. I never knew my dream could possibly come true would until now. In fact, I never honestly understood the true meaning of ‘Believe’ until now. I feel like this experience has not only made me happier, but has changed me as a person as well. I’ve finally realized that dreams do come true. So a huge “thank you” to Justin for everything he’s done and continues to do for us Beliebers. It’s incredible. This is my best Justin Bieber experience, and I hope you enjoyed reading it! -@BieberOperation (Courteney) Read the rest here: Saturday, October 20th, 2012. My friend Mary, my Dad, and I…
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Saturday, October 20th, 2012. My friend Mary, my Dad, and I…
