<html aria-label="message body"><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><div dir="auto" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">Acceptance Speech After Setting the World Record in Goosebumps</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">I wasn’t, by any means, a natural.</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">Was not one of those wow-hounds</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">born jaw-dropped. I was tough in the husk.</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">Went years untouched by rain. Took shelter</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">seriously, even and often especially</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">in good weather, my tears like teenagers</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">hiding under the hoods of my eyes,</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">so committed they were to never falling</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">for the joke of astonishment.</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">When I was told there were seven</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">wonders of the world, I trusted the math,</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">believed I had seen none of them.</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">Of course beauty hunted me.</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">It hunts everyone. But I outran it, hid</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">in worry, regret, the promise of an afterlife</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">or a week’s end.</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">Then one day, in a red velvet theater</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">in New Orleans, I watched Maya Angelou</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">walk on stage. Seventeen slow steps to the mic.</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">She took a breath before speaking,</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">and I could hear god being born in that breath.</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">My every pore reached out like a hand</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">pointing to the first unsinkable lotus</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">in the bayou of the universe.</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">I’d never felt anything like it.</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">Searched the encyclopedia</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">for the feeling’s name when I got home:</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;"> “Goosebumps.”</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">Afterwards, I thought—I can do this.</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">Started training morning to night,</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">tore the caution tape off my life</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">and let everything touch it.</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">Allen Iverson on the television</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">in his first season with the Sixers,</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">crossover sharp as a V of sparrows</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">Flying through the paint like Michelangelo’s brush:</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">272 goosebumps.</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">My baby sister, sober for the first time</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">in thirteen years, calling to tell me</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">she just noticed our mother’s eyes are green:</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">505 goosebumps.</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">One day, my friend scored tickets</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">to a Prince concert. Tiny venue.</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">I was right behind the sound booth.</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">Prince’s entire band that evening—women.</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">At the end of the show the person</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">turned around and whispered, He didn’t play</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">one song on his setlist the whole night.</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">I live on stages. I know what it is</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">to scratch a plan, but not the whole trip</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">and still arrive to your destination</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">two hundred years before your time:</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">421 (artist formerly known as) goosebumps.</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">But that’s just the fancy stuff.</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">Some of them came from simple facts—</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">It rains diamonds on Jupiter.</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">Blood donors in Sweden receive a thank you</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">message when their blood is used.</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">One night in Michigan, my friend,</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">still undiagnosed, could not uncurl</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">her fingers to strum her guitar,</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">so she sang the chords instead.</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">It was the first time in my life I’d seen pain</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">become an instrument:</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">10 dozen goosebumps</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">for each and every note plucked up from</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">the string section of her refusal to silence</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">her dream.</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">After that, nothing in the world was gray.</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">Even the movie of my past was released</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">in color. The oldest man in my hometown</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">could not get to the door to listen</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">to our carols so we went inside and sang</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">at his bedside instead. Twenty-four boots</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">on the front step catching snowflakes</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">with their tongues: 776 goosebumps.</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">At one point everything started doing it:</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">A sincere apology, an enemy’s love poem.</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">The moon rising over the continental divide.</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">My love and I thought it was a car</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">driving off a cliff, and suddenly</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">nothing in the world was dying.</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">You ever felt that? A split second</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">when nothing in the world is dying?</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">888 goosebumps, and the next day</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">I sharpened a tiny ax</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">so I could split the seconds myself.</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">Too much lives in a moment</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">to not feed it to the fire in the heart, slow.</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">A Missoula treehouse filled with candlelight.</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">The octopus documentary.</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">The biggest dog in the shelter</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">hiding behind a teacup chihuahua,</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">and the woman who came to adopt a cat</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">taking all three of them home.</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">Me, at home, two months into chemotherapy</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">watching all of my eyelashes fall onto my cheekbones</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">and realizing that was 400 wishes</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">I wouldn’t have made otherwise.</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">There is no escaping</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">the magic now. Beauty caught me</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">and never let me go.</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">And the thing about the world record</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">is—if someone breaks it after me,</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">and they will break it after me,</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">I will love that so much</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">that without even trying,</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">I’ll break it again.</span><div style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br></span></div><div style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>- Andrea Gibson</div></div></body></html>