My Children Exist Because of Michael Jackson

On the night of MJ death I donned my highschool Beat It jacket one last time and took this pic.

I know it's not theologically sound to say that my children exist because of Michael Jackson, but let me explain.

I was a Michael Jackson Freak. That's what people called me, that's how I behaved,and that's the name I enjoyed being called. I spent my allowance on every little MJ paraphernalia that I could get my hands on. I was smart enough to save some of the items even though I had NO CLUE that Ebay would be in existance 25 years later! Where's my digital camera?!

Anyho, when I was 11 I BEGGED my parents to let me go to a Jackson5 concert and they did. After the concert, a kid had the towel that Michael had thrown to the audience, and he teasingly yelled throughout the parking lot, "Michael Jackson towel $200!"

I ran up to him, "PLLLLEEEEASSSSSEEE, CAN I TOUCH IT!!!" Yes, I was one of those screaming, crying, snotting, hair pulling, hyperventilating fans, even when watching him on television in my own living room. This day my hysterics carried over from the concert right into the parking lot.

He let me "touch" it, and I rubbed the towel all over my arms and face, becoming intoxicated by the musky smelling, sweat-drenched towel. For years I would go out of my way to track that smell. Every guy who came within 7 feet of me with that smell would have me all over him, greedily inhaling him, dazed and starry-eye asking, "What are you wearing?" And finally at the age of 16 I was able to afford my own bottle of Pierre Cardin! I wore it everyday!

Anyho, as we drove back to Chicago, I sat in the backseat absolutely exhausted from the entire ordeal. I reviewed the day and determined that I was A FOOL!! How could I have Michael Jackson's sweaty towel in my hands and NOT run away with it!! I kept asking myself, "Why didn't I turn and run?! Why didn't I run away with the towel?! I should have ran!! Oh my goodness, how stupid of me!!"

So emotionally distraught was I that I vowed then and there in my 11 year old mind that, "I will never, ever walk away from a situation saying, 'why didn't I?'. I will always do what I want to do!" That childishly expressed thought is better interpreted as, "I will live a life of no regrets" and it has been my motto since I was 11.

So at the age of 21 I started regretting the fact that I did not go to college and enrolled at Loyola University (I chose Loyola because Mark Peterson, a good friend, told me I'll never get in.)

At 23 I started mourning the fact that I was working full-time and only going to school at night. I wanted to experience campus life. So I enrolled at Tuskegee University.

There I found a young man who proposed to me within months of my arrival. We married within months of his proposal. Our first kiss was shared when the Minister pronounced us man and wife and our first child was born nine months later.

All because of a Michael Jackson concert that I went to when I was 11 years old.