Being a tween in 2012, it was only inevitable that I was going to like One Direction, even though I told myself I wasn’t going to be one of those crazy fans obsessing over them. I mean, it was kind of hard not to fall in love with their floppy hair and pretty accents when their music video for “What Makes You Beautiful” was playing on Nickelodeon 24/7.

My parents said my obsession was just a phase. It wasn’t.

I’ve been a “Directioner” for eight years and my love for One Direction is still going strong, even after they’ve gone in different directions (sorry, I had to) with their solo careers. It’s a daily struggle to not freak out every time my math teacher mentions some kind of line going in one direction or having to control my fangirling in public when One Direction’s songs come on. Trust me, I might look calm and collected on the outside, but on the inside, I’m losing my mind.

I’ve been through my fair share of hanging posters all over my walls, to tearing them down because band members did something I didn’t like, such as dating Taylor Swift (cough, cough Harry Styles), to putting them back up because it was only natural that I forgive them for their wrong doings. Since they’ve gone solo, I’ve decreased my poster collection down to two along with my cardboard cutout of Niall, of course.

Christmas was the best time to be a Directioner because you just knew you were getting something with One Direction’s faces on it.

Going to a One Direction concert was the dream for every Directioner. I, sadly, never got to go to one. I wanted to “dance all night to the best song ever.” I’d spend the whole night of the concert I was supposed to be at, even though I never got tickets in the first place, updating my Instagram just to see all the videos and posts by the fan accounts I followed. Yes, I followed fan accounts. I mean can you blame me? It’s One Direction for crying out loud.

I’ll be in the front row at their reunion tour cheering them on whenever they decide to come back. They better come back. They never went on tour for their last album, “Made in the A.M.,” which I’m still pretty salty about even after two years (almost 3) on this so called “hiatus.”

Because of One Direction, carrots, spoons, and pigeons named Kevin will always have a special place in my heart. Saying “vas happenin?” and “NO! Jimmy protested” will be the overrated inside jokes of the One Direction fandom for years to come.

And to One Direction, if you somehow find your way onto this high school newspaper’s website and you’re reading this article, I have one thing to say to you: “you light up my world like nobody else.”

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