Starstruck

While there was much excitement going into this Conference weekend there was also a slight sadness having to work both Saturday and Sunday at the MTC and missing opportunities to go watch Conference with loved ones. With all the anticipation to see those Apostles, leaders, and most importantly, the Prophet, I forgot one other celebrity I would be seeing today. In case you have been living under a rock or do not follow exciting events in LDS culture, David Archuleta entered the MTC this last Wednesday. Preparing the line to serve the missionaries some extremely delicious (and not so healthy) biscuits and gravy, I laughed at the excitement of my co-worker as she spoke of how beautiful David's voice was.

Now, you must have a mental picture of these sweet woman, Gladys. We all love her so much! Gladys stands just over four feet, is about 40-50 years old (so I'm a bad judge of age, deal with it!), and speaks Spanish even when she knows you can't understand her. Luckily, between her broken English and my past knowledge of basic Spanish I was able to understand her excited ramblings and her plot to keep an eye out for him. Over the course of the shift she faithfully watched the door waiting to get a glimpse when a friend of mine, Elder Henrie, came over to tell me he had just seen him. I look across to Gladys and tell her, "He's here!" Immediately she responded, "Where?!" After relaying his location to her from Elder Henrie, Gladys, very determinedly, set off to find him. Being the brave little lady she is she walked right up to his table, leaned over the Elder directly across from him, and waving said "Hi, Elder Archuleta!" Oh how I wish I could have seen this exchange! Gladys beamed for the rest of the shift and gave us an excited giggle when she told us, in Spanish, that she had watched him walk out.

 

In case, like me, you don't know what he looks like, here he is. Subtract the red carpet, the faux hawk, and add a maroon tie and black suit and you are looking at the very young man I saw today.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy his music, but I had never given much thought to him. Though, I did take my turn during my shift, at my Supervisor's urging no less, and went to take a peek at him. After asking someone to point him out ( I wasn't sure what he looked like), I couldn't find anything particularly remarkable about him. There was no excited waving, goofy smile, happy tears, nor any urge to run and hug this young man. Following this siting, while vacuuming up cereal in the back, I started to think about the people that give me this starstruck sensation, the "celebrities" that make me have the symptoms of a devoted fan. The following list came to mind (in no particular order):

• MY FAMILY: I have not seen my family in an extremely long time. The thought of seeing my grandparents, my mom, my siblings, my aunts and uncles, and my cousins makes me long for their loving embraces.
• THE PROPHET: This last semester BYU held a very special devotional in which our loving prophet, President Thomas S. Monson, came to speak. People camped out, the lines wound around endlessly, and even the rain did not deter the immense attendance. I remember as he walked in my intense love for him, mixed with the Spirit, caused very sweet tears of joy to stream down my face.
• ASHLEY & HAYLEE: While I do love my brother-in-law David, the very thought of seeing my best friend/big sister/twin Ashley and meeting my beautiful niece, Haylee, brings tears to my eyes. The joy of just the thought of seeing them makes me long for day I will see them again. You could put Ryan Gosling next to them in an airport and you better believe he would think I was a crazed fan coming for him at the sight of me running hurriedly, crying, and smiling towards them. His face would be extremely confused, yet very relieved, at seeing me veer away from him and lovingly embrace my beautiful sister and sweetly squeeze my cute little munchkin and kiss her forehead. I greatly look forward to that day.
• THE CRAIGS: Having them up here in Utah for the week before Conference has been amazing. Knowing that I was going to see them Wednesday made me wiggle and watch the clock through all of my classes. But words can't explain the sense of happiness and comfort I get from watching all of those cute little kids run towards me and embrace me in a giant, group hug.
• BRINTON: This may seem silly considering I see him every single day but without fail my excitement to see him never ceases. Every time I see his smiling face, even if it is not the first time that day, I have to keep myself from running into his arms. Which, I actually do quite often.

When it comes down to it, these are the people that hold celebrity status in my life. The ones that make me search for their face in a crowd and run at the very site of them. Seeing their smiling faces, knowing I am within reach of their warm embrace, is better to me than seeing any national celebrity. So sorry Elder Archuleta, for this girl you just don't make the cut.