The Craziest Thing I've Ever Done to Meet a Celebrity: Hoping to Shake Hands with Obama

In the election season in 2008, I was a Barackstar. I was a Chapter Coordinator for Students for Barack Obama, and I was doing everything I could to get people psyched to get out to vote--and hopefully vote for Obama. One day in February, I held and organizing meeting at River Ridge Mall, in Lynchburg, Virginia. Only about five people showed up, but we were totally pumped for our candidate. We all made a pact to stay pumped and let each other know if we knew anything about organizing and rallying events.

Shortly after leaving the meeting, one of the attendees, Lee, called me and told me that he'd heard that Obama was coming to Roanoke, Virginia two days from then. Of course, I was tee-totally stoked beyond all belief. It was going to be an early town hall meeting, and it was forty-five minutes away, but I was bent on going. The catch was that we had to go the next day and get the free tickets to attend. This was no problem, as my husband and I were already attending church close to Roanoke that day.

The day of getting the tickets, our friend, Randall, joined us and we went to Sunday school at early service time. We left very soon after, hoping to get there at 11:00 and be the first few in line. When we finally got there and parked, there were, at least, 100 people ahead of us. Lee was one of them and informed us that the town hall meeting the next morning was to be at 7:00 A.M. Therefore, while waiting in line, Ben, Randall, and I devised a plan. We'd get our tickets, eat, then go to sleep and wake up at 2:00 AM to drive out and wait for the meeting to start, to be three of the first people in. This excited me, because I thought it would give me a chance to meet Barack Obama, the candidate I had worked so hard to support. The boys seemed fine with the plan.

We continued to wait to get in and get our tickets in the HQ building downtown. It was a really freezing cold and windy day. However, Randall continued to read for his class, as did Ben, and I talked with some people behind us. It took about an hour and a half and a chapped pair of lips, but I finally got my two "golden tickets," which I held on to for dear life. Then, we went back to my home.

A bit of time passed, and it was really too late for us to go to sleep to get up, without moods, to go see Obama in the morning. As if on cue, Lee called me. He had bad news--Obama was canceling his trip to Roanoke, due to a fire and high wind. I was so disappointed, but held on to the thought that Lee may had heard wrong. However, soon enough, the new confirmed it.

I would have went through those great lengths (and more) to meet Obama, and probably still would. I admire the man a lot, and he is one of my favorite people. I am not ashamed to admit I was willing to wake up at 2:00 AM after a short nap, to possibly shake the hand of the future President.