Growing up with One Direction

From ages 8-12, every Christmas, every birthday, anytime I was asked what gift I wanted, it was One Direction themed: One Direction posters, One Direction CDs, One Direction T-shirts, Zayn Malik doll, you name it. Anytime my cousin and I hung out, we would spend our time writing Wattpad stories about One Direction and pretending we were friends with the boys. Cringy? Maybe. But as you can see, they made up key parts of my childhood. I can sing all their songs from start to finish and they always make it to my annual top 5 Spotify artists. So you can imagine why Wednesday, October 16, the day Liam Payne died, was a shocking and emotional day for millions of Directioners all around the world. This might sound silly as we didn’t know him or any of the boys personally but having to say goodbye to him felt like saying goodbye to a large part of our childhood. 

I understand Liam had his troubles, controversies, and questionable actions – and by no means am I defending anything he has done – but I don’t think he or anyone deserves to die because of that. He was a part of something that brought happiness to so many fans all over the world and the start of so many friendships. Whether it was watching the “Best Song Ever” music video with my cousin, replaying the “Zayn Malik dancing” YouTube video, or watching the This is Us movie with my mom, One Direction was a big part of my life, and while we grew up with them, I guess we forgot they were growing up as well. 

For the past week after I heard the news, I’ve been listening to their “Forever Young” cover on loop and watching TikTok edits of Liam, and I’ve noticed comments saying it’s weird for fans to grieve him because he’s done some bad things and we didn’t know him personally. However, I don’t think it’s wrong of us to grieve something we once loved so much. Sometimes music saves people and this was the case for a lot of fans. While Liam may not have been my favorite in the band and he may have had his bad times since the band broke up, grieving him is grieving the little girl I used to be. Grieving him means grieving how something that makes me so happy could make them so sad. While we don’t know exactly what happened, no one deserves to die so young. 

So, to Liam Payne, I hope you are happier now and you are resting in peace. To his family, I wish my deepest condolences to you all as no family should ever have to go through this, especially in the eyes of the media. To the rest of the boys, I hope you get to grieve without the world watching you, I hope you don’t blame yourself and I hope you cherish the memories you made with him. To the fans, it’s not weird to grieve a celebrity like this; I completely understand the impact he and the band had on us. And to the little girls whose dream was to see the boys in concert or have a One Direction reunion, they’ll always be in our hearts and we’ll cherish the happiness they made us feel forever. 

• entertainment
• grief
• One Direction