How Justin Beiber Made Me a Belieber

Justin Beiber made me a Belieber... I'm not kidding. Yesterday was a very exciting day for lots and lots of girls in the Boston area... Justin Beiber was in town and ready to knock the socks off of girls (and women) of all ages at the TD Garden. My friend Cristina, who has two adorable nieces (whom I adore), beat out thousands of people across our area to obtain the coveted ticket to Justin Beiber's November 10th performance. It had been months of preparation and excitement in anticipation of this concert extravaganza. Cristina and I planned to primp and prep with these girls to make this day as special as possible for them. We started with manis and pedis, then did some hair and makeup and were on our way to their first concert ever! We had both prepared ourselves for madness but I don't think we quite prepared ourselves for this experience.

Upon our arrival, we were greeted with a sea of purple, sequins, hand painted shirts and just the buzz of true excitement. Maybe as I have gotten older, I have lost what it truly means to be excited about something without it being clouded by my own negativity about logistics or details. In my head, I was looking for possible exits, at all the people and keeping tabs on the kids we had with us. With these kids, there was none of that worry; the only thing on their minds was seeing Justin Beiber with their own two eyes in person. There were screams of excitement even before we got into the venue, it was on.

The girls were excited for the opening acts (Jaidyn Smith and Cody Simpson... yeah, I'm old) but when the screen started counting the last 10 minutes down to Justin Beiber, it was a build up that, we would soon find out, could not be contained. I will give it to the Beibs, it took another full 5 minutes after the countdown ended for him to fly out on massive angel wings, so the girls we waiting on every move until they could see him, continuing the buildup. When the lights finally showed it was JB, the tears just combusted. A 7 year old and a 9 year old, were so unbelievably overwhelmed with happiness that they just cried happy, sometimes sobbing, tears. Cristina and I laughed a little at first but when it took some time for the girls to work through their feelings, it was apparent that this was something that wasn't just "a concert"... this was an experience that Cristina gave them that they would remember forever. To look at all the girls seated around us, it wasn't just our girls that were tearing up. There was a glisten in the eye of nearly all the tweens and teenage girls within our 10 foot radius. There is something about Justin Beiber that really has an effect on people, mainly young, hopeful girls.

After the show, we had what we called "Justin Beiber" luck getting outta dodge. We made it down and out of the garage in record time and were on our way with no snags to speak of. In talking about the show, while the girls were sleeping in the back, there were lots of little videos where Justin talked about believing in yourself and reaching for your dreams. He also talked a lot about all the "hot girls" in the audience, because he and Selena Gomez are recently broken up, you know. There were points where I sat there and was like "really, Justin? you're full of it."... but you know what that makes me? Jaded. That boy is an entertainer and man, did he come out and do the job right, hitting his main demographic with a quite harmless and sometimes positive/uplifting message. I bet you there were thousands of parents last night, who walked out of that building, knowing that it was money well spent. Seeing the pure, unadulterated happiness exuding from all manner of children and even adults, was quite the experience... and it could not be denied... and that is how I came to be, a "Belieber".