- watching "The Making of Thriller" and being in awe over how they did the makeup and costumes (and cringing when they showed him putting on his yellow cat-eye contacts)
- cherishing my set of Michael Jackson photo sticker cards (my favorite was the one of him wearing a yellow sweater vest)
- repeatedly watching my VHS tape of "Moonwalker" (my favorite scene was the kid's version of "Bad", which--come to think of it--reminds me of Weird Al Yankovic's "Fat", also a childhood favorite)
- going to see "Captain EO" as my first attraction every time my parents and I went to Disneyland (I even still have my souvenir button at home)
- coming home from school and singing along to "Dangerous" on repeat (tonight I even cried singing along to Jennifer Hudson's rendition of "Will you be there", which was without a doubt my favorite song from the album)
- being glued to MTV so I could catch out Mariah Carey's Unplugged music video and belt out "I'll be there" along with her and Trey Lorenz
- winning 1st place in two lip synch contests for my performance of "Beat It" (I had ordered the VHS to History in order to perfect the choreography and got friends to play girl gang members)
Thank you, Michael. I will always remember the times. I just wish that your music and stardom had made you as happy as it did the rest of the world. Maybe things would have ended differently if we had all paid closer attention to and not so easily forgotten some of your lyrics. You were there for so many of us, but so few of us were there for you. May you finally rest in peace.
