This is how you develop street cred

Part of being a successful substitute teacher is being able to relate to the kids.  You can do this by trying to remember what your own personal thoughts, feelings, and opinions were on such things as worksheets and dress codes.  You can also do this by seeing Justin Bieber in concert.  I've done both.

Yep, that's right, I've seen Justin Bieber in concert.  Willingly.  I took the 14-year-old daughter of family friends and her two besties.  I agreed to take them because none of the parents wanted to (wonder why) and I lived in Omaha and was going back to Sioux City anyways so it wasn't going to be a problem at all.  I have to say, the girls were adorable.  One of the girl's parents brought them down to Omaha and I took them out for ice cream.  After hearing them tell me where they got their custom t-shirts made (screen prints of "Justin, I wanna be your one less lonely girl!"-absolutely precious) and listening to two reveal the prank the played on the third girl (they told her I had a hot twin brother and I felt so terrible telling her that I actually had no brother at all, let alone a hot one) I asked them if they'd be cool with chilling at my apartment for a little while before dinner while I packed my bag.

Direct quote from one of the girls:

"Oh my gosh!  That's so cool!  I want to chill at someone's apartment in the city!"

My response:

"Well your dream is about to come true, because we're going to go do that right now."

It was so fun to hear someone think that hanging out in my crummy midtown apartment in midtown Omaha, Nebraska would actually be cool.  Oh to be 14 again.

The girls and I got pizza, then made our way to the concert.  Oh my gosh, you guys.  There were more teenage girls there than I thought existed in the entire world.  I took the girls to their seats then made my way to mine.  My seat was all the way across the auditorium, literally as far away as humanly possible from the girls.  But luckily I had brought binoculars so I could still see them.

So I sat there.  By myself.  At a Justin Bieber concert.  With binoculars.  Yea, I definitely didn't look like a pedophile. 

I watched the concert, and must say, Justin Bieber puts on a good show.  He had like 4 opening acts and he himself performed for over an hour.  At one point in time one of the opening acts kept asking the girls to scream louder and louder, until finally I thought it was humanly impossible for them to scream any louder.  They proved me wrong.  When Justin performed he said things like "There's a lot of really beautiful girls out there tonight..." and the girls went wild.  I'm fairly certain that every single girl thought he was talking directly to them.  He also sat in a giant heart that was then suspended above the crowd while he played the guitar.  And on the drive back in the car, the three girls all agreed that he was definitely the closest to them while he was in the heart.  Which is totally impossible, but it was way too cute that they believed they were nearly close enough to touch him for me to ruin their lives by crushing their dreams with reality.

But what did all of this experience gain me?  Street cred with junior high and high school girls.  They LOVE Justin Bieber.  Love him.  I probably see or hear about him at least once a week while working, and from all age levels, too.  So when I reveal that I've seen him in concert, I instantly become the coolest substitute teacher of all time.  At least to the girls.  And that kind of reputation is totally worth hearing children scream their eyeballs out for a boy with swoopy hair.