Today is the anniversary of the Season 2 Finale on American Idol.  It is hard to realize that it has been 7 years since that fateful night.

To me, there were two winners that night.  Both Clay Aiken and Ruben Studdard were amazing and ready to “Reach for the Stars.”

Let’s have a toast to the next seven years!!

Mamarose wrote a beautiful essay about Clay and the Anomaly.  Thank you for sharing it with us!!

The Anomaly…Just the Beginning!

And so it began…seven years ago tonight! Well, in truth, it began when a young man named Clayton Holmes Aiken stepped up to a mic at the beginning of American Idol Season 2 and sang that first word. But for many of us, seven years ago tonight was our “galvanization,” as it were. After the results were read on that fateful night in 2003, which would come to be known as “The Anomaly,” everything truly did begin.

After that night we stumbled together, sought each other out, many in shock and disbelief, still reeling and stunned and in need of solace.  We came together to commiserate and cry and moan and shake our fists at the fates and unfairness. But what is most important is that WE CAME TOGETHER. The shock had indeed galvanized us, startled us into the activity that would make us who we are as Clay fans and forge a bond between us and the young man who had won our hearts…a prize far more important than any American Idol title would ever be.

The shock of that night would be the catalyst to all that the Clay Nation would become.

The shock of that night would strengthen our resolve to right that wrong and any future wrongs to come.

The shock of that night would prepare us for all that the next years would bring. It would stiffen our spines and solidify our resolve. In looking back, I feel no sadness about that night. In fact, I think I am grateful in many ways. I truly believe all things happen for a reason.

Now our hearts are tried and tested and we know the truth…and we are still here.

As the Chicago song goes, it was “Only the beginning of what I want to feel forever. Only the beginning. Only just the start…”

Do you remember this amazing wallpaper from fountaindawg?  It is still one of the best!!