As basically the whole world knows, One Direction is going on a “hiatus” in 2016. This is alarming for fans of the dreamy 4-piece because it’s been shown time after time that for boybands, “hiatus” means the end. Remember when *NSYNC went on hiatus? Yeah, they’re still on it.
I’ve been telling myself that it will be ok. I don’t need to worry about this One Direction hiatus. For most of this past week, I thought I was 
actually doing quite well. I mean, as I wrote in my earlier post, An Open Letter to Simon Cowell on One Direction, the boys most definitely deserve a break. I can’t imagine being their age and not actually knowing what life is like. I mean, being in One Direction is a pretty darn sweet job, but no one – and I mean no one – wants to work all the time. At one point I had even convinced myself that this “hiatus” really is just that… a break. I was really keeping it together. But then the other night happened.
Kris, Justine, and I were watching One Direction’s season of X-Factor UK, because that’s just the kind of fans we are. Something dramatic happens to the band and we go back to their roots to watch their inception. Except this episode was the Judges’ Houses episode. It was the episode in which One Direction first became a team. It was the episode that showed them finding out they would actually be getting a shot at stardom.
At first it was delightful, watching those cute, young, normal boys get the first glimpse of their dreams. As Harry put so eloquently in the episode, there were so many moments throughout the process of the X-Factor that could change their respective futures. They had no idea what was ahead of them.
And then, as the episode waned, there was the part where Simon revealed they were going through to the live shows. I watched those five boys hug each other tightly, celebrating that small, small victory that would lead to so much more… and I burst into tears. Like uncontrollable tears. Not just like a single tear sliding down my cheek that was easily hidden.
I’ve never burst into tears watching that scene before. This time it just got me, and I think it has something to do with the fact that we may never see One Direction tour again. I mean, I’m sure at least one of the boys (Harry) will go on to solo superstardom if he wants to. But seeing his show will be nothing like the night just over a month ago that I spent interacting with all of the boys while they were on stage.
I think this overly emotional response also had something to do with the fact that even if they do reunite, Zayn is gone and it won’t ever be the same. Zayn was actually my least favourite member of One Direction, by quite a lot. So I was pretty surprised to find myself reacting so strongly to seeing Zayn put his arms around his bandmates on that episode of X-Factor.
I guess the point of the story here is that even though I thought I was ok, I wasn’t. Is this truly just a hiatus? I hope so, but I am going to be worrying about it every single moment until the day that One Direction actually comes back to us.
Cheers,
KG
