This whole experience feel very "full circle".
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I decided to write about David Sedaris’s life and my own prior to booking my ticket to go see him, and I pretended that it was incentive to do a good job on it, so I could share it with him. Not for one second did I think that was actually in the realm of possibility, but it made for a nice story.
I began wanting to write about Sedaris because everything just seemed to add up a little too well. I was stressed about my future and reading about his life and his entirely non-liner path to becoming a writer made me feel like perhaps I was going to be okay. Everyone, of course, told me things would pan out. I obviously ignored them.
Sedaris had a goal in mind. He knew early on he was going to be a writer and he would end up in New York City. He went in arguably the most roundabout way possible to doing so, but he did it. He did everything he dreamed of. He made it.
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About a year ago, I decided that my dream was to get into NYU’s Literary Reportage program and eventually become a writer. I told people about my dream, but mostly with the caveat that this was just a pipe dream. I never expected it to become a reality.
Through the rollercoaster that is one’s senior year of college, uncertainty got to me. Fear got to me. I was (and, in most ways, still am) an utter disaster. The night before my NYU application was due, I rewrote the whole thing (with Mike’s help). The end result was something I was incredibly proud of, but I remained skeptical. Putting all of my hopes and dreams on one school was a recipe for disaster. It's an uncomfortable feeling, one that I try to avoid at all costs. I'll downplay everything in order to spare my feelings when things don't go as I wanted.
By some miracle, I got into the program. Things sort of did feel like they were panning out. By the time April rolled around and it was time for me to see David’s show in Ann Arbor, I felt at peace in a sense. Two days before the show, I realized what a colossal fool I was for not reaching out to David/his manager sooner, but on a whim I sent some emails, and because of that, David's tour manager now has the link to this website.
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I got to his show an hour early, knowing he might come out to sign books beforehand. I was right. Shaking and sweaty, I stood 3 feet away from this miraculous being that I likely did not deserve to be in the presence of. As you would've guessed, it felt like a dream. I am genuinely in disbelief that after this whole bizarre year, this is how it ends. Unfathomable, and, frankly, too good to be true.
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I don't aspire to be David Sedaris. I don't dream of following his path - in fact, I'd recommend not following his path for your own health and safety. But I admire him. His commitment to his goal.
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While I will forever have an aversion to putting my faith into something bigger than myself, there's a part of me that thinks a lot of this happened outside my realm of control. Maybe even for a reason. But maybe not.
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