ohhiddles-myhiddles:

Today was an amazing day.

Photo Op

I got through an aganozingly long wait in the photo op line and somehow ended up right at the black curtain entrance to the photo room. The ACE staff at the entrance informed everyone there would be no hugs, which was disappointing but I completely lost whatever sadness I had in the very next second cause the line moved and Tom was in my line of vision for the first time in my life. I whispered “Holy crap,” and felt genuinely nervous for the first time of this whole experience.

The people in front of me raced through their photo and I was walking towards this actual human – not a gif, not a video, an actual human in front of me. He extended his hand and we did a very brief handshake. Did we say hello and did I introduce myself? Maybe. I don’t know. I don’t remember. What I do remember is that I entered the room from his right side and I squeaked, “Um, actually can I get on your other side?” to which he responded, “Oh, is that your good side?” I was feeling extremely awkward and as I scooted to his left I nervously laughed and said, “yeah…ha ha haha.”

I had this whole pose in mind that I wanted us to do. It wasn’t anything complex, but it was more than the standard pose. But I honestly didn’t want to waste everyone’s time talking and situtating ourselves so I just kept it simple with the side-to-side pose. I really didn’t even think of where to put my hand and I apparently just grabbed his rib cage lmao. .01 seconds later and we’re through and maybe I said goodbye, I think I was blinded by the camera light and I kinda rushed out of the room just so I could catch my breath again.

I am sad to say that in this whole exchange I did not take a good inhale and accurately assess his scent – I think mine overpowered his so when I pulled away all I smelled was roses lol I failed you guys, I’m sorry!! I heard from the other gals I was with that it was a woodsy door which certainly sounds pleasant.

So I’m out of the room and my heart is actually beating way too fast – like I go to the gym and don’t notice that fast of a rate. I should have checked my damn Fitbit lol anyway, I go to pick up the picture and I’m super pleased!! We’re both cheesing super hard and normally I don’t like my face when I’m smiling that big but I looked genuinely happy for the first time in a long time! And Tom!! What a sweetheart. And then one of the tumblr gals I was with was tearing up so I all of a sudden got emotional and teary and five years of being a fan caught up with me in that moment and it was a very lovely peak to reach 💜

Autograph

So, for my autograph, I wanted Tom to sign a copy of Desiderata. This had such a different vibe than the photo op – it was more slow paced, I could watch Tom interact with a few of the people before me and really absorb him in his element. They made us put our name on a post-it note and said Tom was only writing the name and his signature for all autographs.

When I was in front of him, I loudly said “HI TOM!” and hated myself immediately after cause he was like “😳 Hi!” and then the ACE staff scooted the poem in front of him, he looked down and said, “Oh, I love this poem.” To which I replied, “I love it too, it got me through a really rough time in my life.” “It got me through a rough time in my life as well,” was his response which made me feel good.

I started going on about how we need it especially in the current state of the world, but trailed off because I noticed how concentrated he was on signing the poem. He wrote my name carefully, which made sense, but then he continued to have a tremendous amount of focus on his own name and wasn’t even doing cursive… just a lot of concentration and time for each letter of his name. I thought this was interesting but then realized it was probably the bandage on his thumb that didn’t make it as natural for him but bless him for simultaneously wanting to make sure everything was moving smoothly but also being quite careful. He was so nice and I wished him a good rest of the day and left on my merry way.

I actually had this whole minute long background as to why Desiderata was so important to me and why I thank him so very much, but I again didn’t want to take up a steady moving line. I was content with our mutual relatability to the poem and I can only imagine what rough period(s) that poem brought him to.

Anyway, that was all I can think of. Thank you for reading this far if you have!! I just wanted to get everything out so I’d never forget a single morsel of this remarkable day 🤗

That is fucking amazing @ohhiddles-myhiddles. I’m so happy you got to meet the professor 😊