That summer of 1997 my life changed forever. Seeing Michael for the first time was a dream come true. That summer I felt I was walking on air and I didnt understand yet that it was because of Michael.

I was working in a hotel as a junior chef during that summer. When everyone say the change in me they couldnt believe it. They knew I liked his music, I was always playing it but they didnt know how much he ment to me. One evening in the staff room after work some of my work collegues sugessted that I should join a fan club. Up until then I had always been wary of fanclubs, as my parents had alwys thought they were a waste of money.

 Afew months later when I was at home I was reading one of my favourite books about Michael called THE VISUAL DOCUMENTRY by Adrian Grant.

This is an amzing book, giving a day by day, year by year account of Michaels life. I had first heard about Adrian afew years before when Smash Hits a British pop music magazine did a feature about him. As a result I knew that he was a genuine fan and was not just another journalist out to make money from a book about Michael. At the back of the book I found the address of the British fanclub, MJ news International. I decided to write to them , asking about membership. Fianlly I was taking that big step of getting involved in the fan world, after over 10 years of being on my own, I wanted to see if there were others like me out there.

To my surprise I got a very nice letter from a lady called Gloria Haydock who ran the club. The yearly membership wasnt too expensive and I decided to join. When I recieved the first magazine, I was jumping with joy, omg the magazine was amzing. Every moth I couldnt wait for the next edition. For the first time in my life I was able to see that how I felt about Michael was ok, and that many others felt the same.

In one issue they had a feature called YANA groups. This was an idea based on the song You Are Not Alone, to get fans who lived in the same city or town to meet up . In Ireland, as it is so small there was just an Irish group. I decided to send them a letter via the magazine, to see if there were many fans in Ireland.

To my surprise I found that they were a small group of about 5 or 6 fans who would meet up about once a month in Dublin. It was soo much fun to go to thes meetings in the beginning. We would meet up usually on a saturday and spend the afternoon talking about Michael, and going around the second hand music shops to see what we could find. We would then head to burger king or Macdonalds where everyone would show the group the latest item they had bought from the fanclub or a rare item from their collection. We used to wear fedors and Michael tshirts and even though we got alot of strange reactions that was part of the fun.

During the first few months of 1999 we heard that Michael was going to do 2 charity concerts in the summer, one in Korea and one in Germany. I rang Gloria Haydock, the president of MJNI just to ask if she knew when they would be shown on TV. OMG!!!!!!!!!!! one minute I was asking her about the concert being shown on tv and the next minute she was telling me that tickets were still available and that MJNI were also putting together fan package of flights, hotel and concert ticket!

I told her I would call her back as  by now my heart was racing and I was shaking. I hadnt seen him in nearly 2 years and now Gloria was asking me how many tickets did I need. The fierst thing I did was ring the other members of the YANA group as I knew that they didnt know about the tickets. I couldnt believe it when one by one they all said they couldnt go!! Then finally one girl rang me back and said she could go. As it was our first time travelling to see Michael, we hadnt got a clue what to do so we decided to book onto the fan package being organised by MJNI

So  we travelled to Munich with MJNI. It was a 3 day trip, we arrived in Munich on the saturday in time for the celbration and welcome for  Michael at his hotel, went to the concert on the sunsay and came home on the monday. As it was my first time to travel to see him and I didnt know any one else who was going I was happy to go on the fanclub trip. It ment that I didnt have to worry about finding somewhere to stay or how to get to Munich. On the other hand it ment I had to leave Munich the day after the concert. Back then I had no idea of what it is like when Michael is on a public trip like this, now with experienc I realise I should have done the trip myself.

A soon as we arrived in Munich I wanted to get to Michaels hotel as soon as possible. It was crazy in Munich, I had never experienced anything like it. When we got to the hotel we managed to get a space at the front of the barrier. Three fanclubs had joined together to put on an afternoon of performances to welcome Michael to Munich.

As soon as Michael arrived it was crazy. He got out of the car and started walking over to the barriers to fans. Then suddenly he was gone. Even now I still get goosebumbs and I can hear the screams. That day I  was part of what I had grown up watching on tv, the amazing reaction that Michael causes, MICHAELMANIA.

Afterwards as we were walking back to our hotel I had my banner with the Irish falg around my waist. A guy saw it as he walked past and asked us if we were Irish as his friend was from Ireland too. How random is that, to meet another Irish person amoung the huge amount of people that were there for Michael. So we went back to the barriers and talked for a while. We exchanged numbers and promised to keep in contact.

During the rest of that year I still went to the monthly Yana meetings but hardly anyone seemed interesred anymore. It felt like the the group changed after we got back from Munich. It seemed like the group split in 2 with me and 2 others thinking and acting 1 way and the others in the group another way.

I still kep in contact with the other Irish girl I met in Munich, but as she didnt live in Dublin she couldnt come to the YANA meetings.