First World Café for SWLSB! - Sir Wilfrid Laurier School Board

A Dream Come TrueBy: Jessica Dionne, Graduate Sainte Agathe AcademyI've loved Paul McCartney ever since I saw him perform on television at the age of sevenand fell completely in love with him. I became obsessed with knowing everything abouthim and in 2005 my father took me to Toronto to see him perform live at the Air CanadaCentre. I was so excited that when he came out onstage I began to cry, and I cried formost of the concert. I was 15. I remember telling my father after the concert that I wasgoing to meet him one day. I didn't know how, but I began thinking about how to makean encounter with the person you love, respect, and look up to the most, last forever.An autograph on a record is one thing, but you can't carry it around anywhere, andbesides, Paul McCartney's signed millions of records during his lifetime. I wanted to bemore original than that. I'm not exactly sure when the idea came, but it was sometimeafter the 2005 concert. I just needed a perfect opportunity.At the concert in 2010, I was lucky because I was sitting in the 7th row, so I was veryclose to the stage. I have brought signs to concerts before and I know how much people hate when the people in front of themhold up their signs non-stop during the show. So, I was very considerate of the other people and only held up my sign aftereach song, while people were clapping. My sign read: "Paul, please sign my arm; I've already made an appointment for a tattoo"and it was painted in big white letters on a dark blue poster because having been an arts student my entire life, I realizedthat when the house lights hit a sign that has black writing on it, it goes virtually unnoticed, but white writing on a dark backgroundstands out more than anything. I wanted to eliminate the possible competition. It didn't take Paul a very long time tonotice it, I'd say that maybe after 3 songs he had already pointed at it and made some hand gestures towards me. At onepoint, after singing Blackbird he talked about how he finds it difficult when he's singing and tons of signs go up. He said that hismind wants him to read the signs, but he knows that he has to keep singing so it's difficult. He said, "Take that sign forinstance, Paul, please sign my arm; I've already made an appointment for a tattoo" and the crowd cheered, and I went towardsthe stage and he said, "Later, later, we'll do it later", so halfway through the concert Paul McCartney had basically told me thathe was going to do it. My heart started to race at the point.He asked me up right near the end. There were only 3 songs left. He played "Yesterday" and then, as he was switching hisacoustic guitar for his Hofner bass, Brian Riddle, who is one of his security guards, climbed over seats and people to get to me.I was a little afraid he was going to tell me to put my sign down, but he told me to hold it up because Paul wanted to call meup, but he couldn't see me. So he told me to keep it up there, and when Paul would call, I had to follow him. So maybe a fewminutes later, Paul called me up by saying, "Wait a minute, wait a minute. Do you really want me to sign your arm for a tattoo?C'mon!” And motioned for me to join him on stage. I'd liketo say to that I was smooth about it, but I was so high onadrenaline at the point that I forgot to follow Brian andended up taking a long time to get onstage. Finally,security guards from the Bell Centre had to lift me overthe front barriers and I finally made it to staircase thatwould lead me to Paul McCartney. There, I was greeted bya man who sounded a lot like Rod Stewart, and he tookmy sign, asked me if I had a pen (which I of course had),and told me that when I was finished on stage, I neededto come back down these same stairs. I nodded inagreement and he screamed "GO GO GO" and pushed meup the stairs.Continued on next page...SIR WILFRID LAURIER SCHOOL BOARD Page 16 VOLUME 3 · ISSUE 3 · March 2012