I'm Broken, Do You Hear Me?

So, Directioners. Here we are. The boys have been No. 1 in pretty much every "major" country around the world. Tours sell out in under 5 minutes. TV appearances are becoming increasingly common, and it isn't hard to find the boys being advertised or interviewed on TV somewhere. There's a VEVO channel with a combined total of nearly 157 million views, and that number goes up every single day. There are people to thank, people who will never be forgotten; Simon, Savan, voters, judges, every single person who shaped them into the boys that they are. For a lot of us, there's the boys on the stairs; for the less fortunate, there's only the boys on the couch, the boys on Nickelodeon. There are the inappropriate jokes, and the sadly censored ones. We've seen a million different sides to our boys; the boys that laugh, that injure themselves and each other, the boys that give food to fans and protest when security stops them at signings and meet-and-greets. We've seen countless videos and interviews, of 5 boys that we would be lucky to know, or even meet, in real life. 5 boys that are completely relateable and yet impossible at the same time. We’ve feuded over ever possible thing: misspelling of names, misremembering of jokes, who’s a “Directioner”, a “Directionator”, or just a fan. We’ve seen hate, love, and everything in between. We’ve seen Twitter followers grow to that special first million, and we’ve all been the 301st viewer of some exciting new YouTube video. There are naïve little girls, waiting to be corrupted, and those of us that are long gone. We have walls plastered with posters, dedicated Tumblrs; dammit, we have dedicated lives. WE HAVE DEDICATED OUR LIVES TO ONE DIRECTION. And while at times, it seems futile, while there are countries unvisited, names unknown, stories untold, never forget that you are part of a revolution. There’s so much more to come in this century, and so much to remember from the last decade, but for so many of us, the thing to remember is One Direction. 1DERLAND. The 1DFAMILY. We have a whole support network of people, music, jokes, tears and everything we could possibly ask for in a family, even the fights and the sad moments. So never forget, amongst all the new fame, the new fans, everything new that is thrown our way, that this is not, and never will be, a waste of your time. This life you spend on Tumblr and YouTube and Twitter, making friends every day, bonding with fans, crying over every sad and happy moment, all of this. This isn’t a waste. This is legendary. This is us. We are One Direction.

There was a moment when I was lost, when they beat me and I decided to beg them to let me live. To see my beautiful wife, my son and my daughter. To breathe another breath and lie in the sun and just live. But begging them wouldn't change things, it would only give them satisfaction and that I wouldn't do. No. This would be the job they carried with them for the rest of their lives, this would be the one they felt guilty about, that their older, fading selves woke up regretting in the middle of the night, trying to quiet their remorse before their own death were upon them. So I made a decision. To give them nothing. And in that moment, one word came to mind: Fortitude.