The Michael Jackson Fan Club

by Joie (USA) 

On August 14, 2000 I went to Neverland. It was a Monday. It was also the most wonderful day of my life.

I had been there before; almost exactly one year before. But that time my friends and I had made the four hour journey just to stand outside the gates...touch the gates...take pictures in front of the gates. That in itself was an amazing experience. Even now, when I look back at those pictures that we took in front of the gates, I can still feel every emotion that I felt that day. The execitment of the car ride from LA; the joy at seeing it all for the first time; the sense of reverent awe at sittng quietly under a tree just outside the gate. It never entered my mind that day that I would be going INSIDE those gates just one year later.

It's difficult to explain what I was feeling the day we drove through those gates. To look at me, one would have thought that I was remarkably calm; almost as if it was the most natural thing in the world to be visiting this magnificent place that I had read and dreamed about for so many years. But, inside, my heart was doing backflips and my stomach had butterflies. I held my breath as we drove slowly past the guard post. I couldn't believe that I was actually inside those gates! I still can't belive it!

I have so many wonderful memories of my time spent at Neverland. Memories that are special only to me and that I will keep in my heart forever. I have traveled to many places and I've seen many things but, Neverland is truly the most beautiful place that I have ever been in my life. Not because the landscape is pleasing to the eye, which it is. But because of what it represents. That place in all of our hearts where people are good and gentle; where fun is clean and innocent; where magic and fantasy are real; where there is no such thing as hatered, or evil....that's Neverland. And no matter what happens, that place will always exist inside my heart forever.