Meeting Link Neal

I'm gonna start off this post by introducing myself and setting the scene, because I feel as though context is extremely important before I tell the actual story.

My name is Elyse, I'm 18 years old and I come from and live in Sydney, Australia. (So you can bet the chances of something like what happened to me in this post aren't very high.)

Late last year, my family planned about a month long trip to the States. We were there from mid November-mid December, and traveled to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas and New York. L.A was the first place we landed and became sort of a home to us, since we'd returned back multiple times over the trip after being to our other destinations. 

My train of thought never really left the guys the whole time I was in Los Angeles. There were so many things I'd seen that made me say "Wow, I saw this place on GMM," or "This was in a Rhett and Link video,". I knew Rhett and Link lived there, and of course every place I traveled within L.A I kept my eyes peeled for the slim chance I may run into them. Unluckily for me, when we first arrived in L.A, the boys were on vacation in Hawaii. But, one of the first things I saw driving the streets of Los Angeles was this, and, well. At that point I knew this trip was going to be amazing.

I did have many, many, many thoughts of how cool it would be to run into the guys there, because how many times am I actually going to be in L.A? I live so far away from the place and flights aren't cheap...like this could be my only chance to actually see them in person. But, as life is, I didn't expect it to actually happen. Who would?

After travelling to Vegas and San Francisco we returned to Los Angeles to stay for about a week. We were all in a state of "Just pick something to do, and we'll do it,". My brother was the person to suggest a basketball game, and, me being me, rolled my eyes and protested. To my delight, we'd missed the start of the game by the time my family decided they wanted to go, and the tickets were all exhausted for that night. But then the plans were postponed. To the next night. It was almost as if by some weird force of fate, the world just didn't want us to be at Staples Stadium that night...

I tried to be cheerful about it the next day (4th of December), and really, I figured maybe it would be fun? It was gonna be our last night in Los Angeles before we headed to New York the next day so I sucked it up and went with my brothers for the sake of time. It was fun. Like, really. Really fun.

The first half (or quarter...man, I don't know anything about basketball...) of the game flew by and I was snapchatting the event to a few of my friends, making a joke out of pretending to see Rhett and the mythical crew in the crowd (in reference to this post https://www.instagram.com/p/BMniZO_BLoM/?taken-by=rhettmc)...but like I said. It was just a joke.

They do this weird thing at sports games where they show the crowd on the jumbo screen, I was just internally struggling with the anxiety of seeing myself on the screen when there was a part dedicated to showing the kids around the stadium, my heart calmed down a bit, since I'm not a kid, but, I didn't realise how quickly things could change.

The camera panned to two kids who were unmistakably Locke and Lincoln. I felt my heart lodge in my throat. It didn't feel real. It was kind of like watching a prerecorded video, which I had to remind myself a few hundred times, it's not. To the left of Lincoln, I saw....this guy. Some guy that I know, oh, just this guy who does an internet talk show that I watch every day. It was only half of his face, half of his body. But it was Link. He was smiling, clearly excited the kids were on the screen, and at this point I lost my sanity.

I punched my brother in the arm, maybe harder than I thought at the time, shaking in my seat. "That's...that's Rhett and Link's kids!". I barely said it. But then I said it again...and again...and maybe I let a few curses slip here and there. Because, no way, right? No way. It's also pretty crazy that, just being at the game, the chances of seeing yourself up on the jumbo screen aren't that big either, it's just a thing that might happen. But it showed Locke and Lincoln, when it didn't have to, but I'm so glad it did, because I'd never have known they were there otherwise.

Of course, my brother didn't believe me. My brothers weren't paying attention. They didn't believe me, but I trusted my eyes, of course, and spent the next hour of the game squinting at the whole stadium trying to spot them. I figured both Rhett and Link were there, even though I didn't see Rhett on the jumbo screen, because Locke was there, and that just made sense. I remember praying quietly if somebody could please hand me a pair of binoculars. God knows how badly I needed them. I can't really describe the way I was feeling, it was excitement mixed with anxiety and anger because "where the HECK ARE THEY!!!!!!!!!!!!" seemed to be the only thing I was saying as the game drew closer to the end. I kind of hoped that I would see them and race to the exit nearest them so I could meet them and have my dream come true. But it didn't happen, and the game ended (the LA Clippers lost, waaaa), and I wasted no time trying to find an exit. 

I basically dragged my brothers with me until we made it outside. I didn't have a clue what I was doing, I was losing hope, losing time, but I knew I had to try. One of my brothers suggested to turn right to find our way out of the stadium, but persistently, and for no real reason, I made sure we turned left. I didn't have a valid point. It was just a feeling. "No, we need to go left." 

We were walking for less than a second when I saw Lincoln, first. I can't remember if I stopped walking, but I'm pretty sure I did. And then my eyes shifted a little to the side of Lincoln, a little to the front, and I lost my mind. You know how in that one ear biscuit Rhett talked about how Link walks, really, really fast? I'm not sure if everything was just happening in 10x speed for me, but boy. He walks fast. 

I was stuck. I had no voice, no sudden urgency to move, just...stuck. I had enough energy in me to squeak my brothers name out a few times "...Harry...HARRY!" before pointing in their direction. They almost passed us. They did pass us. I felt myself start to move to do something, anything, when my brother called out Link's name.

"Link!"

And then, I think this is when I died.

He spun on his heel, his expression kind of surprised, kind of confused. I felt a little bad, because maybe he had some place to be, or something. Nothing much was running through my head other than a loud ringing noise, I really lost myself when this happened. He walked towards us, myself barely hearing anything that my brother was saying to him. "We're big fans, this is my sister Elyse," (boy I'm glad he did cause I could not speak) "we're from Australia!" Link seemed to perk a little at this, meanwhile, I'm just coming to my senses and trying to prove myself, prove that it was real, and I whipped out my wrist (I had my BYMB band on) and just said, "seriously. We're big fans.", kind of shoving it in his face. (I know, I'm such an idiot. Lol.) He smiled and offered us a picture, and he is so, so, humble, my heart melted at the way he suggested it. "Uhh, do you guys want a picture?". 

Maybe I am overthinking all of this, you know, but, I had to. It was Link. It was real and it was happening and I couldn't stop smiling. My brother and I posed for our picture while we made small talk, "How are you guys liking L.A?", "It's great, there's just a smell here..." to which he laughed...and my heart soared away, taking me with it above the clouds while my other brother took our photos. He made a small comment about how the L.A clippers lost the game and then he laughed at himself, and here I was, watching my literal soul be taken far away from earth, as I quietly died with my arm wrapped around his waist and his hand on my back. That was definitely something I couldn't register, the warmth of his body and just how dang skinny he is, but, man. I am so thankful for all of it. And you know what? He is tall. What a surprise.

We thanked him for the photo and he thanked us, told us to enjoy the rest of our vacation and I'm pretty sure I said thank you more times than I can count. Meanwhile, Lincoln watched on with a goofy smile on his face which made my smile grow bigger. We said goodbye and parted ways, and ever since I've never been the same.

(this is my *internally dying* face)

I don't know what happened to Rhett and Locke, I think the guys had just separated when we found Link and I couldn't find him after that. But...I'm just so thankful and happy that this happened. Before that night, before the trip, before everything, there was not even an ounce of belief within me that something like this could happen to me. It's just so far fetched, the whole situation, but it happened and I thank the heavens everyday that it did.

So to conclude this post, I just have one thing to say... Nothing is impossible. Nothing. Remember to laugh, and go with your gut, because this world is truly unpredictable and you'll never know just what might happen.

:)