Celebrity Trivia

Before I get on with the story, I feel that you need background information to truly grasp how annoying I was in what I am going to explain shortly.

Imagine this, you open up your Pandora app (gross I know). You go to the radio option since you don’t have premium, and you keep skipping songs because none of them seem to achieve the mood you’re in or what you’re striving for. You stop skipping. You hear a mesmerizing beat. The first lyrics you hear are “Since a youngin’ always dreamed of gettin’ rich.” You look down at your phone to store the artist’s name in your brain and file it into what is going to be long term memory. You read “A Tale of 2 Citiez - J. Cole”. You don’t even realize it, but this is the beginning of you obsessing over another artist. From that point on, you listen to strictly rap, especially J. Cole, trying to prove a point that pop music is for normies, even though you’ve never stopped listening to One Direction and have been in love with Harry Styles since you were just seven years old. When J. Cole releases his latest album along with tour dates, you make sure you have those tickets. You have an amazing time at the concert, but FINALLY get out of this damned phase because you realize that you had outgrown his music a long time ago, you just never said anything. That right there was me freshman through sophomore year.

My friends and I had made plans to go to Disneyland during spring break of last year. We never stopped counting down the months, weeks, days, hours, minutes, and seconds until we had arrived there. The night before we left, a friend of mine and I slept over at another friend’s house so it would be much easier to get there. Our other two friends couldn’t come because they’re guys. Skip ahead to the morning of, we were all so excited and couldn't believe that the day had already come. The girls and I got ready and waited impatiently down stairs as our itch for Disneyland needed to be scratched immediately. Finally, we all hopped into the car and strapped ourselves in to contain our excitement. And for safety reasons too, I guess. One of the boys had sent us a picture that the both of them had already arrived, which made us even more eager to get there. Just a little more twiddling of the thumbs and anxious foot taps and we had finally made it.

We had all got fast passes for the essential rides: Radiator Spring Racers, Guardians of the Galaxy Mission Breakout, and Space Mountain. In the meantime, we would bounce back and forth between parks, deciding which rides we should go on first, and what wait times were worth it. We would have the occasional bathroom break, of course. Whether we just felt like snaking or were ravenous, we all agreed to eat at Plaza Inn. In my opinion, they serve the best chicken tenders, mashed potatoes, and biscuits EVER. Then we repeated what we had already been doing, this time including the rides that we got fast passes for. Not to mention the much needed photo-ops in front of Mickey’s Fun Wheel. And just like that, the day was over.

As the park was coming to a close, we all seemed to separate as we walked towards the entrance gate, splitting up into even smaller groups. Walter and I had become the members of our own little group now. As we were turning the corner to walk onto Main St., I noticed this man sitting on a bench, with a hotdog cart parked closely to it. I didn’t think much of him. However, I couldn’t seem to peel my eyes off of him. He seemed familiar, almost like someone I knew. With this itch on my brain that needed to be scratched, I observed him closely, or tried to at least since it was pretty dark. The closer we’d walk, the more puzzle pieces I could put together. Hmm, dreads? Yeah, dreads. Red basketball shorts? Noted. Air Jordans? Nice choice. Wait, what about his face? I haven’t taken a look there yet. My heart started racing. It wasn’t up until Walter and I had walked past him that my mind clicked: HOLY CRAP IS THAT J. COLE??? When I say I grabbed him fast, I grabbed him FAST. Walter, that is.

“WALTER, IS THAT J. COLE?,” he turned his neck to look at him.

“Hmm, I don’t know. Why don’t you go ask him?”

“No, that’s so embarrassing.”

We contemplated more and more on what to do. Mainly because of me, anyway. We would go around in circles then back and forth. Needless to say we looked like idiots. Dominique was Walter’s ride home and he was already at the gate. We needed to hurry up, whatever it was we were going to do. While we just stood there like two lost tourists, Walter decided it was a good idea to yell out “YO, J. COLE.” I cannot even explain how embarrassed I felt. To my best ability, I would say that one emoji that looks shocked. I hid behind his shoulders in hopes the man wouldn’t take notice of me. BUT GIRL...HE LOOKED UP. I was so close to just being frozen, or as one would call it: peeing my pants. I really thought I was about to meet J. Cole. But, he looked right back down again. We thought it was strange so we walked off. As we were walking down Main St., I started connecting even more dots. The logical ones this time. Why would he be here when he lives in South Carolina, wouldn’t he go to Florida instead? He has a kid, why wouldn’t he bring him? And where was his wife? Later, we see him walk in front of us. We finally get a good look at his face. To put it into simple terms, he was the Walmart version of J. Cole. I felt SO stupid. Walter started laughing at me, as he rightfully should’ve.

At this point, we’re both looking for the rest of our group since I forced him to stay behind with me. We eventually found them outside of the park, along with my parents. We explained to them how I thought we saw J. Cole which sparked up some giggles. I guess that made our delay a little more tolerable. Rebecca, Beatrice, and I all headed home together while Walter and Dominique left together. While in my parent’s car, Walter FaceTimes me. Can you believe that he and Dominique got lost and were walking around a Denny’s parking lot? They couldn’t find Dominique’s dad. When viewing one side of the story, it is absolutely HILARIOUS. On the other hand, it actually scared us. However, they found his dad. Thank goodness. We all headed home, already reminiscing on the day we all just spent together, and what it would be like to meet your favorite celebrity.