1. First things first: You will never come to terms with the events that took place on 9 February 2002 because there is no way ON THIS EARTH that Will Young should have won Pop Idol.
2. Because you voted for Gareth Gates week in, week out which just proves that it was a GODDAMN FIX.
3. You fell in love with Gareth from the moment he came onto your screen.
4. You made posters, kept scrap books, and wrote love letters to Gareth.
5. And as soon as Pop Idol was over and he started releasing music, you made sure you owned every single, album, and DVD he released.
6. Whenever you saw pictures in the press of other women near, touching, or (god forbid) kissing Gareth Gates, you felt a genuine pain in your heart.
7. But, if you were lucky enough to meet him yourself, you have probably never recovered.
8. To others, your obsession was a bit extreme...
I used to be massively obsessed with Gareth Gates back in the day, even named my pet fish after him. ha ha ha
9. ... but to you it was perfectly reasonable to give up Coke in favour of Pepsi because Gareth was the face of it.
10. When you heard about Gareth's affair with Jordan, you learnt what it meant to have a broken heart.
11. But even though you knew you were the right woman for Gareth, you would have been OK with him dating Zoe Birkett.
12. That said, you had no time for the Rachel Stevens rumours that came out when he did the soundtrack for Seeing Double.
Get away from him, Rachel.
13. If you were really lucky, you managed to get a signed picture of Gareth that you hung up next to your bed.
I got mine because my friend Sinéad's aunt worked in the same hospital as Gareth's mum nbd.
14. And all of your walls were covered in Gareth Gates posters.
You even got the ones that you only got if you managed to collect ten News of the World vouchers and take them to your newsagents.
15. You obviously supported him on both the Pop Idol tour and his own individual tours.
16. Your diaries were full of doodles of your names together, press cuttings, and poetry you were drafting.
17. And if you were really cool, you also had Gareth Gates stationary.
In fact, you exclusively bought Top Of The Pops and Smash Hits! to get the free Gareth stickers.
18. Because you knew everything about him.
I used to be overwhelmingly obsessed with Gareth Gates to the point in which I dressed up as him one year for NYE
Like his home address, the birthdays of his direct relatives, and the exact formation of the hair he used to spike up using Shock Waves hair gel.
19. You were almost competitive about how much you liked him.
20. And you have definitely kissed a picture of him.
21. You'd have given anything to meet back then and just touch his spiky hair.
22. But tbh, you'd do just about anything to meet him now too.
