NJAmbassador
On May 23rd, Nick Jonas announced the unthinkable - he was looking for 10-15 ambassadors who would ultimately be the voice of his fandom and come up with a name for them. There were very little details and no one was sure what to expect, and then Nick stirred the pot when he decided to make it an international competition. 10-15 people worldwide?! I needed to be creative. I started planning when Nick left us with a cryptic tweet, "more details to come", but my 10 minute idea got cut short when finally on June 3rd, Nick announced you had 15-30 seconds to show why you should be a NJAmbassador. Not even a whole minute?! My medley was shot. I didn't even have a backup plan. And to make matters worse it was due by 11:59pm on June 7th (only 4 days after it was revealed)!!!
My retail schedule was not very accommodating of these requirements, but thank God I had the weekend off. There wasn't enough time in even 30 seconds to do a recap of 9 years of loving Nick Jonas, so I decided to keep it current with Last Year Was Complicated. I made a pitch out of the three singles that had been released from LYWC because I figured barely anyone could know the words yet, so I should be one of the few to do something like this. Nick wanted us to show our creativity, and that I did. There were scene changes, outfit changes, acoustic backup, and personalized NJAmbassador props. I wanted this so bad I was having a heart attack making it. I hadn't sang publicly since I was 17, so belting in my friend's backyard in front of his parents was a nightmare. This needed to be perfect - I had the utmost advantage being from New York since Nick wanted to hold the first meeting in NYC the week of the album release. And hello, when he sees my video he will obviously recognize me! I'm sure there's a bunch of “me’s” out there, but being from New York you definitely get to meet him a lot more than fans from other cities since he lives here.
I watched every submission that rolled in, and I knew no one had anything on what I was about to do. I finished editing my video on the 6th, but I didn't post it until the 7th so people wouldn't have enough time to be inspired by me - or rip me off. I had a moment of self doubt when it came time to post it (you could post it on Twitter or Instagram) - I contemplated only posting it on Twitter so that people I knew wouldn't see it (I only have a 100+ Twitter followers vs. 700+ Instagram followers). I didn't know if I should be embarrassed to post this to the public. The reaction I got was completely unexpected. Over 6K views on Instagram got me on the Discover page and made me the top post when you searched #NJAmbassador. I had people reposting and retweeting, people really wanted this for me. If there's one thing people know about me, it's that I'm a Jonas Brothers fan. People knew how happy this would make me and how much I deserved it, so the people I feared might make fun of me supported me wholeheartedly. It is still the most active post I have ever had on any social media platform. Regardless what the outcome would be, I was proud of myself for putting myself out there and wearing my heart of my sleeve. This is who I am, and if you don't like it you shouldn't be following me anyway. I had fellow Jonas fans who made their own videos commenting that I should win.
I was so confident, and my heart sank on June 8th when Nick tweeted, "Thank you everyone who sent in a video for #NJAmbassador...we're watching each and every one today. Stay tuned." There wasn't another mention until Nick's management team John Taylor and Phily Mack posted a picture of a group reviewing submissions on a projection screen with the caption, "Getting closer to picking our finalists for #NJAmbassador..." There was radio silence from that post on June 17th until nearly two months later on August 9th when Nick rolled out the new Twitter and Instagram handles @nickjambassadors where the winners would be revealed. My heart was racing a mile a minute. I had checked my DM's nearly every hour since the submissions were in review and I didn't know what this would mean. The competition had gotten so far from what was imagined that I had no idea what to expect. They picked not one, but TWO New York ambassadors, neither of which were me. This is what I was afraid of. If I didn't enter there could be no such thing as rejection. I cried not understanding how I wasn't picked, and furthermore because I knew Joe would never do this to me (DNCE ambassador search?).
When I felt the flood of failure, I along with thousands other around the globe now felt why they should have never done this in the first place - there was about to be a lot of angry fans. All I know is I'm so happy both of my Future Now Tour meet & greets were before this was announced, because I honestly wouldn't have wanted to meet him (especially that this was my talking point at my first meet & greet). This was such a slap in the face, it felt like 9 years of being a fan was wasted. From watching him play in New Jersey churches to this. I was there for the ride and he wasn't there for me. I felt this was owed to me, and I know I'm not the only one but everyone knows how above and beyond I've gone. The only thing that made me feel better is that they don't even seem to do much with the chosen ones. They're still trying to get the Twitter to 7K fans so that they'll announce our fan name. After everything I felt in the moment, I’ll always be proud of the video I made and how I put myself out there for something I’m passionate about. Maybe I was being bitter because I'm not a part of it, but I know where I stand as a NJAmbassador in my heart 😉
