When I was a little girl, I was undoubtedly obsessed with Clay Aiken. If you aren't sure who he is, he was the second runner up (*cringes*) of American Idol. I was made fun of a lot because he was dorky, openly gay, and didn't exactly fit other people's definitions of good music. I didn't care. I fell in love with his voice and passion for music. He made me happy. I always went to his concerts when he came to a venue close to me. I bought all of his cd's the day they came out. I was was completely infatuated with him. My mom even wrote into a local radio station for a Christmas Wish contest telling them about my obsession and I won. I got to meet him and go to his concert. It's a memory I'll always hold dear to me.
Over the years, as I've gotten older and as he has faded from the limelight, my obsession depleted... or so I thought it did. A few days ago when I was in another one of my classes, my professor played a clip of The Apprentice to illustrate a concept. I've never watched the show, or even heard much about it. To my surprise, I heard a familiar voice speaking while I wasn't paying attention (shh), it was Clay Aiken. I squealed (very loudly) of excitement. It was similar to the feeling of seeing your good friend after a long time apart. I was immediately taken back to my childhood. The happiness I felt as a child returned in that moment.
My moral in telling this story is that parasocial relationships can have a lasting effect on a person, just like a real-life friendship. In that moment in class I realized that Clay (yep, still on a first-name basis) had impacted my life so much as a little girl, that even today I still have a sliver of that obsession in me. I probably sound like a lunatic, but I think that being aware of this will be helpful to me when I raise my own children. I want to make sure that the people they idolize have good moral character, so the effect on them is positive, like Clay Aiken was for me.
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