I was bullied a lot as a teenager. I was tall, thin, loud, had weird teeth, was homeschooled, and dressed like the boys in the bands I liked. But all of that was my superpower. I didn’t care if everyone hated me, because I found all the acceptance and friendship I needed in my favourite CDs. All Killer No Filler, Does This Look Infected?, and Chuck have, and continue to, get me through the highs and the lows. 

When the opportunity came up for me to travel to Calgary to do a piece on the Sum 41 exhibition currently on at the National Music Centre, I was ecstatic! When I found out that this visit would line up with when Sum would be in Calgary for their induction into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, I knew I had to shoot my shot. They accepted and here we are. 

I walked into the NMC in the heart of the city at 10:30 a.m. and was escorted up to the 5th floor to join the band on a walk through of their exhibition and all of the amazing things the NMC has to offer. I exited the elevator and made my way towards the brightly coloured yellow and black walls of the Sum exhibit. As I got closer I saw them… Deryck, Cone, Dave, and Tom were right there, smiling, pointing at the photos and sharing memories with each other. And there I was, in the middle of it all. 

Getting to capture their joy and share in their (and my) nostalgia is something I can’t even put into words. They don’t know me, but they’ve been a part of my life since I can remember, and now here we all are. “This got us everything,” Deryck said as he pointed to a homemade EPK cassette. In his book, Deryck Whibley tells the story of the band sending out their first album to all the labels and getting all no’s. They then synched their album to a bunch of Jackass-style footage they had recorded and ended up sending that out to all the same labels… this time they got all yeses. This was definitely a highlight of the exhibit for me – and I think for Deryck too. 

We were then taken through the NMC, ending up at the Rolling Stones mobile recording bus where albums like Led Zeppelin III and many others were recorded. I squeezed in the back of the bus with Ari (Deryck’s wife) and Kendra (Dave’s wife) as the guys nerded out over the console and the albums that were made where we were standing. Ari and Kendra immediately treated me like a friend, complementing my outfit and asking what we were all going to wear on the red carpet later that night. When I showed Kendra the “41” tattoo on my wrist, she immediately yelled “CONER! You gotta see this!” summoning Cone over. He held my arm and turned it around to get a good look at the tattoo. He loved it! In fact, everyone loved it, and they loved the fact that I was a fan.

Most people don’t get to live out their teenage dreams, but I did. This is your sign to be persistent, never give up, and keep asking, because one day, 20 years later, you might get a yes.

They say don’t meet your idols but I completely disagree. Meet your idols! Tell them you love them! Tell them they changed your life! Be a fangirl. You won’t regret it.