I’ve always heard people say, “time flies when you’re having fun,” but I didn’t think a large amount of time could feel like such a short amount.

189,345,600 seconds. 2,191.5 days. Six years.

Six years is a long time to spend obsessing over a boy band. However, the past six years have been the best years of my life, so it hardly feels like six years. On July 23^rd, 2010 at about 8:22 pm, One Direction was put together as a band by Simon Cowell on the X Factor UK. Even though I wasn’t watching the show because I live in America, that day still changed my life forever.

I remember the first time I heard a One Direction song. I was on YouTube listening to music and a song called “Stole My Heart” came on. It had almost a techno tone to it and I heard the five voices and fell in love. A couple months later, this girl at my school in my sophomore year chorus class played the song “What Makes You Beautiful” for me. She showed me a picture of the One Direction boys and I instantly recognized them. That was the day that I picked Niall, the Irish one, as my favorite. From then on, I became completely obsessed.

It started with making a Twitter account completely dedicated to One Direction. Then I became a co-owner of a One Direction fan account with a few other girls. I jumped around from one account to another, making new friends who wouldn’t judge me for my interest in the band because they, too, were completely obsessed. I went to my first One Direction concert during their Up All Night tour in the summer of 2012. This was their first time touring the United States and being a crazy obsessive fan, I HAD to be there. My three best friends at the time and I went to the concert and that was the first time I ever experienced what frequent concert goers call “Post Concert Depression” or “PCD.”

Seeing them live, knowing that they are real, was an experience that I will always remember. My parents thought that after seeing them live one time that the obsession would end, but that only made my love for them stronger. I went to their second tour, the Take Me Home tour, the following summer and that is where my stalker skills were really being put to the test. Before booking the hotel for the concert, I became friends with people on One Direction Update accounts. The owners of the update accounts “hire” people to be “insiders,” or people who try to find the boys. I found out from one of my sources what hotel they would be staying in. We booked our room at the Ritz Carlton in Miami and sure enough, the five UK boys were staying there too. We arrived about 10 minutes after a few fans met Harry and Niall at the adult pool. I was crushed. But that was the day I met my current best friend, Caroline. That summer, I met One Direction’s drummer, security guard, hair dresser and one of their guitarists.

The following summer, Caroline and I attended two of the concerts on the Where We Are tour. We went to Miami and Tampa and we ended up staying at the same hotel as them in Tampa. We met a lot of people that summer. Friends to last a lifetime, more important people in the lives of One Direction, and we met a cool hotel police man named Mark, who we tried getting close to in hopes of him helping us meet our five favorite boys (he didn’t help us).

The obsession still wasn’t over at that point. Caroline and I waited for the next tour dates to come out and planned on going to a huge semi-local event called “1DOrlando.” We went to Orlando and waited all night at Universal Studios to watch One Direction perform on the Today Show live, right in front of our eyes. Waiting all night, we were pretty far away when they were starting their sound check. However, somehow we ended up being in the VIP section. We met Louis’ mom, step dad and sister, Liam’s mother and father and some more of the security and band members. We also purchased tickets to a private performance that would be held that night at Universal Studios. So after waiting longer than 12 hours in the rain and cold (cold for Florida) we finally saw them live for the sixth time. We were on television twice within two months.

After those two performances, we went through a lot, and I don’t just mean myself and Caroline. The One Direction fandom went through a whirlwind of emotions. Sadness, confusion, anger and the feeling of betrayal. Zayn had left the band saying that he was never happy. I think most of us were confused more than anything because how could someone be a part of something for that long knowing that they aren’t happy? How can someone smile and laugh standing next to the people he calls his “best friends” if he isn’t really happy?

But we moved on. Some left the fandom, some started to dislike Zayn, but we remained a family.

For the most recent tour, the On The Road Again tour, we ended up traveling pretty far. One Direction, for the first time, was not really going anywhere in the southeast. We traveled all the way from Florida to Kansas City, Missouri. We bought VIP tickets in the fear that it would be our last time seeing our favorite people in concert. The trip probably cost at least $1000 each just from our plane and concert tickets, but it didn’t matter because we would do anything for them.

That night was one of the best nights of my life. I met so many amazing people and I explored a new city with my best friend and our moms. Sure people thought I was crazy for going so far just to see a boy band that I had already seen about six times, but I didn’t care. You only live once, right?

Aside from giving me some of the best memories in the world, One Direction gave me hope, faith, adventure, friends and a family. They inspire me to go after what I want in life, to chase my dreams, to have faith in myself and remind me that I can do anything that I put my mind to. They remind me that dreams do really come true. I explored new places because of them. I made friends that I know I can go to with anything, friends who became like family. Even through the ups and the downs, One Direction brought together so many people, taught us to love each other and build each other up (even though that’s something we should already know how to do, and do it), and they inspire us.

They created an empire, strengthened so many people who were struggling with loving themselves, and gave us great music to listen to while growing up into the people we are meant to be. And for me, it’s crazy to think that I am going after my dream of being a journalist and that it all began with a little inspiration from five boys.

One Band. One Dream. One Direction.

Thank you for the best six years a girl could ask for.