I applied to the Anderson Cooper show to compete for the ultimate Dawson’s Creek fan prize, just after my Pacey vs Dawson article was written. Now why is Anderson Cooper doing something for Dawson’s Creek in 2012? I don’t know. But, below is my essay for entry.

Describing my attachment to Dawson’s Creek is an interesting task. I started watching when it aired. I was 12. I think my parents were heavily criticized at the time for letting their kids watch this “scandalous” new show but I grew up in the Long Beach area and entertainment was never something my parents worried about. I very quickly became obsessed. I had to watch each new episode on time and when I was old enough to figure it out, I started taping each one. I had stacks upon stacks of tapes. I know that one tape could hold six episodes safely.

Senior year of high school is when Dawson’s Creek finally came to an end. By that time, I had talked about my attachment to the show enough for all of my friends to know. I was leader of the improv troop of my high school and had a group of kids looking up to me. As a senior, I thought it would be great to get some of the boys to come over and wait on my friend and I as we had a Dawson’s Creek marathon. The boys would stay downstairs and play on my xBox and then bring us food and drink whenever we required it.

Dawson’s Creek ended as my high school career ended and as my parent’s marriage did. By the time I entered college, my emotional attachment grew deeper. Not only was I able to start to buy the DVDs and rewatch more freely, but I truly believed that the answer to any of my life’s questions could be answered in an episode. Any new struggle, I would deal with by pulling up the right episode for the right mood.

My freshmen year roommate was sympathetic to this. I brought with me to my freshmen dorm a poster of James van der Beek and Joshua Jackson and she allowed me to place it outside our door. We hung it there and even posted a poll asking who people preferred, Dawson or Pacey. I didn’t even find it weird and definitely didn’t consider that the other freshmen might be judging me for my obsession.

My one and only ebay purchase is of a gloss photo of Joey and Pacey, which still hangs in my room to this day. And I’m 26 years old.