I am excited! Very, very excited! And yes, I know I am not a teenager anymore! Still, receiving a signed DVD by my biggest celebrity crush is something to get excited about! Especially considering I have waited for this DVD… for exactly one year! Yes, one year. But man, isn’t it worth it!

It was exactly 12 months ago when I received a tweet telling me I won the #itookthescenicroute competition on Twitter – with this photo:

It happened right in the middle of a (minor) meltdown, while waiting for the doctors to see my daughter, running after her at the doctor’s surgery, trying to keep her away from the fire exit and from entering the behind reception area – you got the idea, best timing ever!

Now, this is when it gets interesting. And this is when dreams come true.

If someone had told me a few years ago that I would be able to text the behind the scenes cast of a movie I liked, I would have sent them… straight where they belonged, really. Not now. Not in the era of digital media.

I still find it a bit difficult to comprehend that it is as easy as reaching for your phone to get in touch with your idols. Thanks, Twitter! Thanks, Facebook! This is one thing I will never stop being grateful about. And yes, I am no longer a teenager, but I still have my idols and celebrity crushes.

There was a girl behind the tweets regularly updating me on the status of my award. Her name (almost symbolically!) is Hope. Apparently, they ran out of posters, so I got forgotten about. Instead of cutting me off with a polite ‘sorry for this’, she took this close to heart, and… a year on I got my signed DVD:

For those of you who haven’t seen this movie, head over to their official Facebook Page. The film hasn’t quite made it big, but has featured in a few festivals, including SXSW Film Festival 2013 and Highland Park Independent Film Festival 2014.

By far, this is Josh Duhamel’s most serious performance as a world-scale actor. This is when he showed everyone that he is not just a sweetheart (‘When In Rome’, ‘Life As It Is’, etc) and a beefy superman (‘Transformers 2007 – 2011), but a serious actor with a great future ahead.

And me – I’ll happily lend my DVD to all my friends now, spreading the word: about the film, my favourite actor and the cast behind the DVD cover. Thank you, Hope Morris. 🙂 And – thank you Twitter!

P.S. And dreams keep coming true: Josh actually responded to this post. Oh wow!