525,600 minutes

Before I delve into my newest addition to my Tokio Hotel collection, I want to take a few minutes and try to describe this journey. It won't be enough. I can never find the words I need. Though I've been told I'm a skilled writer (which I don't believe), I always feel like the perfect order is just beyond my grasp. Hence why I don't believe those who say I'm good at this.

But that's not what I'm writing about. I want to talk about Tokio Hotel. About this last year and three months. Or is it four months now? I can hardly believe how time has flown; I can hardly believe the difference in me. To go from a depressed, jaded high school drop-out who'd long since given up on dreams, to where I am now. And maybe others don't see the difference; I don't know. People don't tell me stuff. But I gave up on giving up, and I owe it to Tokio Hotel.

That night, just over a year ago, when I saw that picture on that stupid website, I didn't have any idea that my life was about to be turned on end. I couldn't get that picture out of my head. And when I searched on Google, I found a video which also wouldn't let me be. That boy was so enthralling, so enchanting. He was like a Tale'edras or an Elf out of one of my favorite fantasy books. Now I do a little drawing; I don't pretend to be anywhere near good. But if I could have created the perfect image of what I find most beautiful in a human, it probably would have looked something like Bill Kaulitz.

Now let me get this straight before we go any further. I do NOT find him attractive. I find him beautiful. There's a huge difference. He is beautiful, inspiring, amazing, the closest thing to perfect any human could hope to attain. But he is not attractive to me in the least. I don't worship him, I don't think he's sexy, I just find him an amazing and inspiring role model.

When I watched "Don't Jump," I found myself falling for this odd German band. I wasn't exactly well versed on pop culture. Growing up, I was taught that Britney Spears was the epitome of evil, and that nothing good could come out of Hollywood. I admit, I try to keep up with modern, current entertainment now because I hate being so clueless about the culture I grew up in. However, I never in a million years would have thought to look outside North America to find what I was looking for. It wasn't that I was opposed to European musicians, I honestly just hadn't thought of it. So I was surprised when I fell so hard. I think part of it- make that most of it- was due to my utter boredem. Sitting up all night, waiting for something to happen- the world is never as boring as it is at 02:00 when you're alone. And so I listened to Tokio Hotel music videos, watched old THTV episodes, and eventually found THA.

I say eventually; it was probably less than a week.

The changes have been significant.

In 2006, I left the Bible college in Chicago.

Between 2006 and 2009, I did nothing.

In 2009, I got a job.

In 2009, I saw "Don't Jump."

In 2010, I got my high school diploma, enrolled in college, was accepted into the Honors Program, started learning German, decided to go after the major I wanted instead of the one I thought I should do, signed up for three music classes, including piano, and finished my first semester of college with a 3.7 GPA.

All that to say:

This has been the best 525,600 minutes of my life.

Parodies

Several hilarious parodies of Tokio Hotel songs have emerged over the last few weeks. It's amazing many talented people there are at Tokiohotelamerica.com. Here's my own contribution to the parody collection, in honor of my soulmate Jaspar:

We won’t come when you call
We won’t do your will at all
We don’t believe anything you say
We’ll run away
Whenever you try to cuddle
You’ll pet us on our terms
Or get claw marks on your arms
We’ll run away

We are cats unleashed
No, not you
We are cats unleashed
No, just us

We are cats unleashed
With mind control
Full of powers
Nobody knows
Unleashed
Clawing at your face
We will always
Do our own thing
We are cats unleashed
We are cats unleashed
We are cats unleashed
Tonight
Tonight

We’ll stalk your feet
We’ll keep you up
We turn everything into a fight
We won’t ever
Let you sleep
At night

I am
In charge
In your
House now

Cats unleashed
We are cats unleashed
Cats unleashed

If you want to read the others, just go to Tokio Hotel America and look in the Creativity section for the parody threads.

How I found Tokio Hotel

I was working nights, and my job was SO boring. Basically all I had to do was sit up all night in case the phone rang. (This was back in September 2009.) I found some websites that were quite entertaining, if a little stupid. Okay, a lot stupid. One night, I was on The Site That Shall Not Be Named (I won't say the name because no normal person should go there, it's the epitome of stupid, and I only went there in the first place because my job was so BORING), and the discussion was about androgyny. Someone posted a picture of this...person. I wasn't sure if it was a guy or girl. But they said the name was Bill, so I figured it was a guy. The poster didn't bother putting a last name, so I figured it would be impossible to find out who it was. I almost forgot about it for a few days. It came up in a conversation with my sister two days later, though, and I decided to send her a picture. Only first I had to find one. The one on TSTSNBN had been taken down, which left Google. And all I had was the name "Bill", which is not exactly the most unusual name. I typed in "bill androgynous", and the first thing that came up was a Wikipedia article about Bill Kaulitz. It said he was German, and that he was in a band with his twin brother. I was bored and a little curious, so I went to Youtube and searched for Tokio Hotel. The first video I watched was "Don't Jump". During the watching thereof, I became convinced that this wasn't a real person, because he was just too perfect. I mean, he was the most beautiful person I'd ever seen. No one is that beautiful. Or so I thought. Regardless of whether he was real or just a CGI person that the other band members created to increase their popularity, I was completely taken in. I looked on Google some more, and I found the most wonderful site ever: Tokio Hotel America. I joined the forum 09/27/2009. I admit, I wasn't impressed at first; I broke one of the rules early on and almost got myself banned, after which I refused to go back. My resolve lasted not even a week, for which I'm infinitely glad.