I'm Back - and So are the New Kids on The Block!

Okay, so my whole blogging experiment didn't quite go as planned...Yes, it has been a year since I wrote last! I actually forgot that I had a blog until today...Oops. Anyway, I wrote an essay recently about my experience at the New Kids on The Block reunion concert in Saratoga Springs on June 16, 2009. I am a professional writer and editor, but I wrote this just for fun. Here it is!

Confessions of a (Former) Teeny Bopper

What I am about to say is very difficult for a woman of the ripe old age of 33 to admit: I went to a New Kids on the Block concert last night. Oh, and I didn’t just go to the concert; I paid a ridiculous amount of money for VIP tickets so I could actually meet Joey, Jordan, Jonathan, Donnie and Danny! This was a friend’s idea, not mine, yet I was definitely a willing participant.

Before I go any further, let’s get a few things straight. 1) Am I still a NKOTB fan? Well, I do think a couple of their new songs are catchy, but up until last night I hadn’t listened to “Hangin’ Tough” since about 1990. These days my musical tastes veer more towards country than the feverishly hot boy band of the moment. In other words, I don’t own any Jonas Brothers CDs. 2) Was I dying to meet them? I thought it would be fun to meet the objects of my childhood crushes, but I promise that as a happily married woman, my days of dreaming of being Mrs. Jonathan Knight have been over for years!

So why did I go? Quite simply, I thought it would be nice to “go back” – even for just a couple of hours. Go back to my 13th year of life, when my parents were still married and my biggest problems were what to wear to school, how to get a date with that hot guy in my history class, and whether my dad was willing to take my best friend Christina and me to – you guessed it – the New Kids on the Block concert. You know, before it all got complicated and I actually had to grow up.

Go back to the days of putting posters on my Laura Ashley pink-flowered walls – posters of NKOTB, Chad Allen, Mackenzie Astin and of course, the girl I wanted to be, Debbie Gibson! I even had a black hat and everything. Go back to singing, dancing and trying out for the Mickey Mouse Club with Christina (yes, we actually did that), believing I could be whatever I wanted to be and that all I had to do to do well in life was do well in school.

So go back I did. As hard as this is to believe, it didn’t take long to get over the fact that we’ve all grown up; after walking in and getting a hug from Jonathan Knight, I felt like I had never left junior high. As soon as I got over seeing these guys in person, seeing that not only was I no longer a 13 year-old wide-eyed girl but they were no longer “Kids” themselves, I let go and let myself fall back into 1989 again. Though I hadn’t listened to their songs in almost two decades, somehow I remembered all the words.

The New Kids really are just as good looking -- if not more so -- than they were when they were teens, and I think they sounded even better. Even though many of us in the audience (and on stage, for that matter) are married with children, last night we were all young and single, just for a little while. The concert was way better than I had expected, and meeting them was worth every penny.

I couldn’t help but wonder though, why everyone else was here. Had all of these women really never stopped loving the New Kids? Did they still go to bed dreaming of meeting them one day, marrying them and having their children? I’m going to go out on a limb here and tell you that yes, there were definitely a good amount of fans surrounding me who still had plenty of that in them. This includes one of the girls I went with – a couple years older than me and a mother of two, she sleeps on a NKOTB pillow case. To each his own, I say, but it’s probably a good thing for my marriage that that doesn’t appeal to me! But I think there were plenty of fans who went for the same reasons that I did, and I’m pretty sure we all got what we came for.

I know it’s true; you can never really go back. You’re only young once, and life really isn’t that bad when you finally grow up. But I don’t see the harm in reverting just for a little while. It sure was fun, and something my 13 year-old self could only have dreamed of. So thanks Joey, Jordan, Jonathan, Donnie and Danny -- for helping this grownup feel like a “Kid” again – at least for one short night. I never thought I’d say this, but if you ever come back to the Albany, NY area – this fan (no matter how old I am) will be there.