Here is what being obsessed with Justin Bieber taught me

Just found out that with the Apple equivalent of Alexa, you can just speak into it, and it does not just respond to one voice. Here I am on holiday, trying to perform my morning skincare routine, and I am thinking about what should be my musical background. Justin Bieber just popped into my mind, and as Siri takes me through Justin’s catalogue, here is what came to my mind. Interestingly, being a part of Justin Bieber’s fan base also shaped who I am. I have listed some lessons below:

1. Unreasonable love or unconditional love:

Thirteen to eighteen-year-old me was obsessed with Bieber; I loved him. If I rationalise this, I can easily conclude that I loved that Canadian boy with my heart and soul. I could go as far as to say he was my real first love. He controlled my mood, my feelings, my perception of reality; he could make me so happy and sad interchangeably just with a tweet, when Twitter was still lit. Justin Bieber taught me that, paradoxically, I am capable of extending love beyond my nearest and dearest.

1. The importance of defending what you believe in:

We really don’t give enough credit to the Bieber; when he was up, he owned the pop scene. Selling out arenas like nobody’s business all over the world, insane fan base that could easily make or break even him at some point. But with everything great comes always some sort of misery. Justin Bieber was arguably one of the most bullied and hated young stars back then. As much as his fans had his back, the hate was so much that it got to him on so many occasions. I remember not always being a fan openly because as soon as you said you liked him, people tend to see you as a crazy person. Something clicked one day, Justin Bieber taught me that no one gets to judge me for what or who I love, and when everything points in an opposite direction, one should always stand firm in what they believe, especially when you are not really harming anyone with your choices.

1. I can do anything I set my mind on:

Loving Justin while living in Italy and not even growing up in a financially stable background was really not for the faint-hearted. For obvious reasons, the American fanbase somewhat enjoyed more of Justin Bieber thanks to the ad hoc occasion of fan meets events, or meet and greet. In Italy, we had Justin for really few occasions, so it was important that when those occasions presented themselves, we strive to take advantage of them. Justin taught me that I can do anything I set my mind on. I remember when he came to Milan at the Mondadori shop; I was so heartbroken that I could not financially make the trip. He was so close yet so far. I promised myself that I would never waste occasions anymore, so I started saving money. At fifteen years old, I was folding and ironing my neighbours’ laundry so I could save up money for any other fan meet. And when he announced his concert in Bologna, I just had about enough money to buy the ticket and cover the travel expenses.

This remains a constant in my life; the only things that I don’t achieve are the ones I don’t set my mind on.

1. I am able to convey my emotions:

After dreaming so big that I managed to attend Justin Bieber’s concert, I felt like I was walking on cloud nine for a while. I felt invincible, like my tenacity will always do it for me. I had so many feelings and no one to share them with. Justin Bieber taught me about putting my feelings into writing. For the first time in my life, I wrote a piece on my Bieber Experience and I published it somewhere, and so many people related to me. Many people told me that they could feel what I felt. That made me really proud.

I know you probably thought that this girl is mad, one could argue that we all are products of our experiences.

I will publish in a separate blog post my Bieber Experience; feel free to dig deeper into my obsession. It was originally composed in Italian so it might not make sense syntactically, bear with me.