Why you Just Never Know: From Chicken Soup For The American Idol Soul

American Idol Runner-Up, Season 2 It was December 2003, and Christmas was just a few weeks away. I was in Atlanta as part of a radio tour around the country when I received a very special and unexpected holiday gift. It had been six months since that amazing night when Ruben and I were on stage at the Kodak Theater for the American Idol Season 2 Finale. . During those months, I loved being at American Idols Live! tour, I made my first video… Quote From Clay AikenAmerican Idol Runner-Up, Season 2 It was December 2003, and Christmas was just a few weeks away. I was in Atlanta as part of a radio tour around the country when I received a very special and unexpected holiday gift. It had been six months since that amazing night when Ruben and I were on stage at the Kodak Theater for the American Idol Season 2 Finale. . During those months, I loved being at American Idols Live! tour, make my first video and album, travel from city to city, sing live on radio stations along the way, and meet thousands of fans to chat and sign autographs. At first, all the praise was hard for me to accept. , but eventually I began to get used to people telling me how hearing my songs or watching my videos changed their lives. However, it was still a challenge for me when a fan told me something strange, such as, “I was thinking of taking my own life — and when I put on your CD and heard your song, I realized that I really wanted to live, and I shed tears of gratitude for you.” Could I really have had such an impact on people's lives? I wondered. Because, if I am, I should be the one crying tears of gratitude for being lucky enough to be in this position. With my fans saying everything to me, I would do my best to be kind when they told me these things, even if I had been caught unawares. On this December day, a lovely little girl came to me while I was signing autographs and said, “Your video, Invisible, has had a profound effect on my life.” I didn't want to argue with him, but I was sure he must have confused that video with another video I had made. I thought, It couldn't be Invisible. That was just a compliment video of me singing on stage in the middle of Hollywood Boulevard with a lot of people cheering. There was no story line. There was nothing encouraging about it. How can this video affect the world? ” Are you sure you don't mention another video? I asked. ” No, I'm not sure it was invisible. ” I asked him to explain. He paused before saying, "Well, I used to weigh about 200 pounds." “Wow, you look great, but how did that happen. has something to do with Invisible? ”” When I saw the girl on stage in the video, and she hugged me, I couldn't believe it. I mean he was fat, and he looked happy to have her up there. Because you accepted him, I was able to accept him. After that, my whole life changed. ” I had to think back to that video a minute before it became clear to me what he was talking about. While we were making the video, the music director took someone out of the crowd and put him on stage with me. She was not overweight. She was a good-looking girl, but she was not exactly the same as the women you often see in music videos. She wasn't very young or handsome - but I never thought about it until then. "However, thank you very much for sharing that with me," I said. But just being grateful was not enough for the gift the lady gave me that day. Without his knowledge, his words shook my world. I have always tried to remember that people look at what I say and do to find out what is important and important to me, and I have always tried to set the right example. But that day I realized that I could not know all the ways in which my actions could affect someone. I didn’t think the video would affect anyone in any good way - but, look again, look, it had. Based on that conversation, I decided that in my videos, I would always have a regular, daily, average- people watching. I had to fight with the producers of my recording company for this, but I persevered. When we did The Way, I told them I did not want thin girls or perfect boys in the video. If we are going to include good people, I want a good girl to have a fat guy and an average girl to have a model guy. I want people to know that it does not matter what you look like. Everyone is good enough. This is one of the reasons why America loves Idol and the program has such an impact on so many people. You rarely see a contestant with a beautiful music video! It's about real people. Season 2 was very exciting because not only the Top 3 - Ruben, Kimberley, and I - we all came from a non-existent area, Podunk, USA, but we were also very normal, average-looking people. We would not have obtained recording contracts if it had not been for American Idol. Reuben was a great young man; Kimberley was beautiful, but she was a woman of great size; I was such a booth, and still am. And then, the following season there was Fantasia - a single mother struggling with many strangers. We are just ordinary people from the neighborhood or down the street.On that historic day in Atlanta, I also realized that it was not just people in the public eye who were influencing others. You do not have to make a music video to make a difference in a person's life. You can be a bagger at a grocery store or a bank clerk. You never know when something you say or do will affect someone else's life, and perhaps change it permanently. . .The gift I received from my fan in Atlanta is proof of that. (Reprinted with permission from Chicken Soup of American Idol Soul: Stories from Idols and Fans that Open Your Heart and Make Your Soul Sing.)