…Probably not. That’s a serious stretch. He’s a seriously famous and adored actor. But, this post does involve a small, yet significant moment between Mr. Reedus and myself.
Let’s backtrack here. I have been a fan of Norman Reedus since The Boondock Saints. When his character Daryl Dixon was created for AMC’s The Walking Dead, I was very excited. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to begin watching until a while after it aired due to inaccessibility to TV and internet. But once I finally was able to, I was hooked.
Not only does Reedus play an incredible character wrought with internal conflict, extreme character development, a dry sense of humor, AND a crossbow/motorcycle/bulging muscles, he actually displays these facets skillfully and with a perfect balance between fragility and ruggedness.
I instantly related to Daryl Dixon’s character. He has some skeletons he’s constantly trying to overcome, even before the zombie apocalypse, and even when he does fall victim to his old ways, he always overcomes. This actually gives me more strength. I know he’s fictional, but it’s refreshing to actually see it with my own eyes in such a brutal, demanding environment (zombie apocalypse).
S0…I dressed up like Daryl for Halloween this year.
I did the best I could – you can’t see it but pinned to my old leather jacket are angel wings I made with old cotton. I’ve got a pistol crossbow I received as a Christmas gift last year, extra bolts and a Nerf gun. I smeared some fake blood and brown eyeshadow all over my face/chest/hands, and voila!
The picture was taken for a costume contest at my work, but I posted it on Instagram as well. I got off work, and Justin and my friend Jonathan who was visiting (and who also took the photo) went to a small bar and enjoyed some local beers. I noticed that my photo was getting a lot of likes. Normally when I post a picture I’ll get anywhere between 10-20 likes. I’m not Instagram famous or anything. So I started looking through them, trying to figure out why all these people were liking and following me. I noticed someone commented: “He liked!”
And that’s when I saw it. Norman Reedus himself clicked like on my picture.
I’m not too proud to say that I reacted…well, perhaps a little too excited. I began hyperventilating, and my speech got a little mixed up. Thank goodness we were in the car by then, because I’m sure someone would have called 911. I definitely looked like I was having a heart attack.
After I calmed down from realized that one of my favorite celebrities took the time out of his day to like my photo, I realized how significant this small action was. Above all else, all celebrities are still human beings. Though they’re all very busy, I’m sure, it’s amazing when they take time to show fans they care. Because Norman Reedus somehow saw my photo, and liked it enough to click like, he made a random girl with nothing innately special about her feel like a ball of glowing light. It made me think about random acts of kindness and how simple things can strongly affect other people in such a huge way.
I just wanted to share my story about my fifteen minute of fame, and how it really made me want to do more small things to help anyone else have happiness.
I’ll leave you with some pictures of Daryl Dixon because, in all honesty…yum.
I do not own these photos. If you know where they came from please tell me so I can give credit. I just had them saved on my computer.
Unless 