Bowtie Ambassadors- My Essay for English Class About It :)
Throughout the past thirteen years, many things have happened to me. Some are more interesting than others. I’ve had surgery on my back, gotten two guitars, been through two bands, been confirmed as a Catholic, moved to a new state, and so much more, but those things don’t seem interesting enough to share with people, so I chose something different. It really is a kind, sweet, special thing, so I feel that it deserves to be shared.
           On February 13th of this year, a spectacular singer’s audition of “House of the Rising Sun” for NBC’s The Voice was aired on TV. That singer’s name was Phillip Arnold, but he is much better known as Pip. His peculiar fashion sense and extreme vocal talent landed him a spot on Team Adam. He won his battle against his fellow competitor and extremely close friend, Nathan Parrett, when singing Amy Winehouse’s “You Know I’m No Good” and that pushed him through to the first live round, where he sang “When You Were Young”.  That performance got him into the second live round, and he sang “Somewhere Only We Know”. It was in that round that the coaches each had to make a surprise, immediate elimination, and Pip was sent home by Adam. At the finale on May 8th, he was brought back to sing “I Want You Back” with Jermaine Paul, Jamar Rogers, and James Massone. I remember chanting, “Pip! Pip! Pip! Pip!,” when they were announcing the names of the performers, and it was an amazing performance. From there, he had done a KickStarter to help him raise money to do his first album. His goal was to raise $26,000, and the album was funded with a total of over $29,500! The album is currently being written, mixed, and produced. He would have never gotten this money if it wasn’t for the help of the “Pipsters”, which is the name of his fan-base, and I am a part of it.
           Over the past few months, the fan-base has worked on many projects for him, and when we began to work on another at the end of June, he decided to partner up with the leader of the project, Stephanie, and turned it into a contest to thank all of us for everything we’ve done for him. For the contest, we were to submit stories of how we became Pipsters, and whoever’s story was the most inspiring got a signed Southern Proper bowtie- his signature accessory. Almost twenty of us sent in stories! I had sent in mine right at the deadline, which was on June 30th, and the winner was to be announced via UStream on July 31st.
           Over the next few weeks until the UStream, it really calmed down, but details about the contest changed A LOT! It went from being just the winner getting a signed bowtie to second and third place also getting a signed picture or t-shirt, to second through fifth place getting shirts and signed pictures, to the way it stayed- everyone getting shirts and signed pictures including the winner who also got the bowtie. After that, everyone was extremely excited about it! Everyone kept predicting the winner. I personally thought it would be Kristen, because her story was so heart-warming and inspiring. She was truly dedicated to the fan base, and her story proves that she has been there since the beginning. She definitely deserved it because of how amazing of a person she is, but there was no telling of who it was.
           On July 30th, we were all anxious of what will happen on the next day at the UStream. We were complaining, saying that the next day and a half will be so slow. On the next day, we were all excited but clueless because the time of the UStream hadn’t been announced. Around 3:00 PM, Pip finally made an announcement about the UStream. He had to postpone it to Thursday, August 2nd because of how busy he’s been with the album. We all got upset, but we understood why. On Thursday, I made plans with Zach Kohr and Victoria Kocher to hang at 7:00 PM because his UStreams are usually later at night. Around 6:00 PM, he announced that his UStream would be at 7:00, and I was freaking out!  I almost started crying because I thought I’d miss it! I had started to walk to Victoria’s uncle’s house to meet them, and on the way there, I realized that I could watch the UStream from my phone! I was literally jumping because of my excitement! When I got to her uncle’s house, they were still inside, so I turned it on and sat on the stairs to their porch. He told us who the winner was, and it was no surprise that it was Kristen. Then he made a comment about each of the entries, including mine. After that was when I turned it off to hang with Zach and Victoria.
           A few days later, Bridget, one of Pip’s sisters, mailed everything out. On Friday, August 9th, everyone started getting their stuff!  The first person was Vanessa, then Becca, then Jordan, and then a few more people. I checked my mail every twenty minutes as soon as the first person posted a picture of their stuff on Twitter. After at least five times of checking the mail, there mine was! I was running around my house screaming and jumping like a little kid on Christmas morning! I opened the package, and there the stuff was! It was a greyish-brown with tan print. The front had Pip’s signature printed on it, and the back said “I ♥ A GUY IN A BOWTIE”. I immediately put it on! It was then that I realized there was black writing on the sleeve… Pip signed the shirts! After realizing that, I pulled out the picture. It was of him smiling, wearing a purple shirt, and he had written a message on and signed it. I couldn’t stop smiling for the next few hours after getting the stuff.
           Pip doing this for all of us was so surreal. Not many celebrities take the time to interact with their fans like he did. Pip is a really kind person and he really has a good heart. Knowing how much he cares about and appreciates us means so much to me. This opportunity to get to know him and have him do something like that for us really meant a lot, and I couldn’t ask for anymore from him. When he finishes his album, I will definitely be getting it!
  ****Hope y'all like it! This is my point of view of Bowtie Ambassadors! Any comments?
