Monday, April 20, 2015

Day 840: Worth the Wait

Once Upon A Time...

That seems to be not only a common theme on my blog and in my life, but also how most of the greatest fairy tales start. When we read those four words, we know we're in for a tale that could have anything to do with Knights in Shining Armor and Princesses or Dragons or Trolls or Pirates and who knows what else. Well, I'm here to tell you a story, and I'm pretty sure it has little to do with anything beyond a pen, some paper and one Prince Charming.

A year ago, over a year ago actually, I was in the middle of a fairy tale class here at SNC. I wasn't going to take the class initially, but a friend convinced me and now I talk about it as my favorite class I've taken in college...or ever really. As a part of that class, we had to write a final research paper, and I set to work as early as possible. Since OUAT is my favorite TV show and this was a class on Fairy Tales, I figured it would be a fair bet that I could base my final paper around the show, or at least include it as an example somewhere. What I ended up doing, of course, went far beyond just mentioning the show, as it was a quote from Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis that set the foundation for my topic and my thesis: Hope.

Hope became really important to me that semester, especially as I set out writing letters to many of the main cast members of the show, just to see if I would get any sort of response. I kept my hopes low, of course, because the chances of any of the cast members actually getting my hand written letter and writing back were pretty slim. And as the end of the semester grew closer, I pretty much said "Oh well" and moved on. It wasn't a big deal. I had a great paper (that quoted both Colin O'Donoghue and Jennifer Morrison), I was finished with a great class and we completed another great season of OUAT.

I haven't thought about those letters in ages. Until today.

I generally check my email, which is sent directly to my phone, about a million times a day. I check it in between classes for sure, just as I did this morning on my walk back towards my dorm from French class. At SNC, when a package arrives in the mail for us that's too big for our box, they send us an email, one of which was sitting in my email folder this morning. To be honest, I was confused. Downright confused. The only thing I have coming in the mail here to SNC would be my Disney Parks Vacation Planning DVD, but that they'd probably just put in my mailbox. I shouldn't have a package. So I go and I pick it up and it's a large white envelope that says "'Please Do Not Bend" on the outside.

At this point, I have a rough idea of what might be in the envelope, mostly because of the do not bend note. It has to be an autograph or something. But who in the world would do that? Who did I make so happy that they'd send me an autograph? Who was the autograph from? Why does the handwriting on the address look so familiar? Who even has my address? Every single one of those questions ran through my mind about five times and I hurried back to my dorm room, threw my stuff across the floor and futon and quickly opened the envelope, only to find THIS in it!


That's right, on a random rainy Monday morning over a year after I mailed out the letters to the cast of OUAT, I got an autographed photo from Josh Dallas (or at least his reps). Regardless, it's signed by him, and it's definitely in response to my letter since the address on the front is mine, cut out from the envelope I sent with the letter. Words cannot express how long I was hyperventilating, half crying and full on freaking out in my dorm room as I tried to process the fact that while I almost never get mail at college, apparently when I do it's from JOSH DALLAS. 

Which leaves me to wonder...where are the other letters? Have they reached the cast members just now? Did they read them? Who knows! But for now I'm going to go yell from the rooftops that I got this in the mail. It's amazing how my life has changed since a year ago when I hoped for a tweet from even the most minor cast member and now here I am with over 70 tweets, favorites and retweets, not to mention this new autograph from Prince Charming himself. Let me tell you though...when you're on the receiving end of a Charm Attack, there's nothing you can do but fangirl. 

Thanks Josh! You definitely made one Oncer and Charmer extremely happy today! 

Have a magical day!



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