Justin Mark Campbell (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
likefatherlikeson) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
dreamlikenewyork2014-11-09 12:56 am
likefatherlikeson) wrote in dreamlikenewyork2014-11-09 12:56 am
Entry tags:
"Please excuse my writing..."
Who: Just Justin Campbell
What: Turning point
Where: Home
When: Saturday morning
It had been just under two weeks since an exclusive interview from Justin had been published in his mom's magazine. It was Harley who had interviewed him and written the story because Justin hadn't felt comfortable with any of the other journalists. But he knew Harley, because he had met him a few times when he had visited the HQ of the magazine and he followed Harley's column religiously. Harley was one of those people who was an inspiration, with serious health problems himself, but had quickly gotten a large fan base with his column in FABULOUS writing about the inside life of starting a modelling career. So, it was Harley who Justin wanted to interview him with the daunting task of going public about his bipolar and touching on what happened to postpone his work on Footloose.
He hadn't been ready to give a live interview of any sort. In fact, he had been laid up with mono for the last few weeks and had been contagious, so it was impossible anyway. Harley had come to the apartment and they spent the afternoon just chatting, Justin opening up to him about a lot of different things that wouldn't even be in the interview. It hadn't been easy getting to the part about the bipolar, but he had gotten there. Harley had been great, and ultimately, the story had gone viral but since it was published, his parents with Aiden and his company's help had put up tough protective walls around Justin so he wasn't impacted on too directly. His mental health did still need to be protected, even if he was recovering from the latest episode.
Since the article was published, though, a ridiculous amount of fan mail had begun to arrive for him at both the magazine office and the theatre Footloose was at. So much, in fact, that his mom and dad had been piling it all up in Jamie's room, but it was spilling out the hall and into the living room now, as Justin noticed when he woke up close to lunch time that day. He was sleeping for a good 15 hours or more a day with mono, so his daily routine had gone out the window. Until now, Justin hadn't wanted to open any of the mail. His dad said they would keep it for so long and if he didn't want to ultimately read it, they could just have it put in storage.
Shuffling into the living room, Justin paused just in the doorway and looked at the piles of envelopes and packages stacked against the wall. His blue eyes raked over the piles and he nibbled on the corner of his lip, scratching absent-mindedly at his elbow. Instead of just ignoring it like he had the last few days, he went over and picked up a small handful, bringing it over to the sofa where he sat down. The concept of fanmail was odd for him because it wasn't something he ever envisaged him receiving, and there was so much of it.
He lost track of how long he had sat there, but he had soon waded through a good portion of the mail in the livingroom. It was letter after letter from people in the same general age bracket as him telling them about illnesses, mental or otherwise, that they wanted to be able to overcome to face their own dreams just like he was doing. Then there was a whole other pile from teenagers telling him they were gay and how much it meant that he had gone public with it without being ashamed.
Sitting there on the sofa with his legs crossed and a blanket wrapped around him when he had gotten cold, he was fast realising the enormity of what it had meant for him to do what he had done with the interview. He had been terrified. Beyond terrified even. The thought of going public and saying that he had a mental illness had nearly crippled him with fear because he thought people would judge him or tell him he was incapable of doing the play. None of this was flowery fanmail, it was all from people who had faced hardships like he had and saw him as an inspiration.
It was a heavy responsibility to carry, but now more than ever, he was glad he had made that choice. He didn't know how he would be tomorrow, let alone anything beyond that, but all the support he had in these letters, he knew he was as ready as ever to give this the best second chance he could. Something within him had changed reading all these stories not unlike his, and he was more than ready to show them it was possible to survive something like this.
What: Turning point
Where: Home
When: Saturday morning
It had been just under two weeks since an exclusive interview from Justin had been published in his mom's magazine. It was Harley who had interviewed him and written the story because Justin hadn't felt comfortable with any of the other journalists. But he knew Harley, because he had met him a few times when he had visited the HQ of the magazine and he followed Harley's column religiously. Harley was one of those people who was an inspiration, with serious health problems himself, but had quickly gotten a large fan base with his column in FABULOUS writing about the inside life of starting a modelling career. So, it was Harley who Justin wanted to interview him with the daunting task of going public about his bipolar and touching on what happened to postpone his work on Footloose.
He hadn't been ready to give a live interview of any sort. In fact, he had been laid up with mono for the last few weeks and had been contagious, so it was impossible anyway. Harley had come to the apartment and they spent the afternoon just chatting, Justin opening up to him about a lot of different things that wouldn't even be in the interview. It hadn't been easy getting to the part about the bipolar, but he had gotten there. Harley had been great, and ultimately, the story had gone viral but since it was published, his parents with Aiden and his company's help had put up tough protective walls around Justin so he wasn't impacted on too directly. His mental health did still need to be protected, even if he was recovering from the latest episode.
Since the article was published, though, a ridiculous amount of fan mail had begun to arrive for him at both the magazine office and the theatre Footloose was at. So much, in fact, that his mom and dad had been piling it all up in Jamie's room, but it was spilling out the hall and into the living room now, as Justin noticed when he woke up close to lunch time that day. He was sleeping for a good 15 hours or more a day with mono, so his daily routine had gone out the window. Until now, Justin hadn't wanted to open any of the mail. His dad said they would keep it for so long and if he didn't want to ultimately read it, they could just have it put in storage.
Shuffling into the living room, Justin paused just in the doorway and looked at the piles of envelopes and packages stacked against the wall. His blue eyes raked over the piles and he nibbled on the corner of his lip, scratching absent-mindedly at his elbow. Instead of just ignoring it like he had the last few days, he went over and picked up a small handful, bringing it over to the sofa where he sat down. The concept of fanmail was odd for him because it wasn't something he ever envisaged him receiving, and there was so much of it.
He lost track of how long he had sat there, but he had soon waded through a good portion of the mail in the livingroom. It was letter after letter from people in the same general age bracket as him telling them about illnesses, mental or otherwise, that they wanted to be able to overcome to face their own dreams just like he was doing. Then there was a whole other pile from teenagers telling him they were gay and how much it meant that he had gone public with it without being ashamed.
Sitting there on the sofa with his legs crossed and a blanket wrapped around him when he had gotten cold, he was fast realising the enormity of what it had meant for him to do what he had done with the interview. He had been terrified. Beyond terrified even. The thought of going public and saying that he had a mental illness had nearly crippled him with fear because he thought people would judge him or tell him he was incapable of doing the play. None of this was flowery fanmail, it was all from people who had faced hardships like he had and saw him as an inspiration.
It was a heavy responsibility to carry, but now more than ever, he was glad he had made that choice. He didn't know how he would be tomorrow, let alone anything beyond that, but all the support he had in these letters, he knew he was as ready as ever to give this the best second chance he could. Something within him had changed reading all these stories not unlike his, and he was more than ready to show them it was possible to survive something like this.