Remembering the 'King of Pop'

Today marks the one year anniversary of Michael Jackson's death. Hard to believe a whole year has passed already.

Growing up you always hear people say that they remember exactly where they were when something major happened, or when so and so died.

I never fully understood that until that exact thing happened to me last year. The memories of that day are still quite vivid.

I was on vacation in Poland. My mom, niece, sister and I decided to head to the beach that day.

We got up really early around 5:30 am.

We spent more time traveling to the destination then we did on the actual beach, which was a total of about 2 hours.

It was a warm day but not hot enough to go swimming which is why we cut it short.

I remember having no problem with that since I was quite tired from spending so much time out in the sun, and all the walking we had to do just to get there.

We finally arrived home late in the evening and I decided to go on the net to check my email. I found my in box flooded with R.I.P M.J. messages.

For the first 2 minutes I just sat there thinking someone was playing a really cruel joke. After some further searching I found out it was indeed true.

I spent the next few hours watching various news outlets (mainly U.S. ones) report on the event.

I was surprised how much coverage it was receiving since Micheal always seemed more popular in Europe then in North America.

And although we did cover it, it was nowhere near as extensive as in the U.S. I was also surprised at the positiveness of the whole thing.

For years the U.S. media had painted him in such a negative light. Calling him 'Whacko Jacko'.

Always pointing out the strange things he did never any of the good humanitarian things he was quite famous for.

It seemed like as soon as they learned of his death they all of a sudden did a complete 180 and painted him as the hero instead of the 'whacko' they so often highlighted him to be.

I watched the funeral footage the following day on Youtube. And got more and more emotional as it went on.

When his daughter Paris got up to the microphone to speak that's when it really hit me. And I shed quite few tears. I remember feeling such intense sadness.

A feeling that stayed with me for a good couple of weeks afterwards.

I think the sadness was a combination of sorrow for the kids he left behind, and the realization that I would never be able to see this musical icon in concert.

Even though I knew there was very little chance of that ever happening. As long as he was alive the hope was always there. Having that hope so suddenly dashed was extremely difficult to fathom.

The saddest thing of all though was watching all that news coverage, and thinking how unfair it was that he was finally getting the respect he deserved but never really got when he was alive.

I guess that's how it always is though, you never truly appreciate a person until they're no longer there.

R.I.P. Michael. Hope you have the peace and harmony you fought so hard for all your life.