Something Was Missing (Part 4)

It had been a little over a year since I was afflicted by my disorder, but even fully recovered, something was missing. My love for the Jonas Brothers grew more and more. Not only are they exponentially talented musicians, they are also kind, intelligent, funny and generous people, that inspire their fans everyday. But something was missing. I needed to say thank you.
On June 19th, 2009, I got my chance.

My friends and I had just gotten out of school on Tuesday and planned on going to see the Jonas Brothers perform on the TODAY Show on Friday. Because we wanted to be the first ones in line, we left Pennsylvania for New York City on Wednesday, the 17th, to make our way to Rockefeller Plaza. After a few hours drive, we realized we had gotten lost in Brooklyn. But with a few calls to the TODAY Show, calling on strangers walking in the street, and a reset on our car’s GPS, we hand managed to make it to Rockefeller Center.

We saw the flags, we saw the statue, but we could not find this “Rockefeller Plaza”. In panic, we drove around and around the Center until finally, my friends and I decided to get out of the car and search. After about twenty minutes of literally sprinting through the streets of New York, we returned to the car, confused and lost.

When I had called the show, the man told me that the line for the show started at the Citi Bank right in the plaza. Suddenly, the bank’s logo caught my eye, and as the rest of my group waited in traffic, I took off my flip flops and ran barefoot through the street into what looked like an alley way between buildings.

I entered into an office and asked the doorman, who was heading on his way out, if he knew where Rockefeller Plaza was. Puzzled, but kind, he told me that I was in fact, in Rockefeller Plaza. Ecstatic, I flew out of the building and back down the street to tell my friends what I had found.

We got to the Citi bank, confused by the lack of fans, and asked both persons from the TODAY show and Rockefeller Center if we were in the right location. To our surprise, it turned out, we were first in line. Walking on air, we took our spot on the sidewalk and prepared to wait.

We waited for hours before anyone showed up to join us. It was then our group grew from four to eight with the addition of other fans anxious to see the Jonas Brothers on Friday. The eight of us began to talk and became fast friends, playing rapid-fire rounds of “Guess that Song” on our Jonas-filled iPods, and doing The Hoe Down Throw Down and Honor Roll in the Plaza at two o’clock in the morning. But that night, it began to rain.

It rained for the next 24 hours, a constant down pour, soaking us to the core. But we stuck through it, darting in and out of Rockefeller Center to take turns underneath the blow driers to try and get dry, as the line grew and grew. Around 4pm on Thursday, and what seemed like a week and half spent in the rain with no sleep at all, the fans had arrived.