I have been a music girl since I was quite wee. I grew up in a household where music was always playing and we were always singing, my mom beautifully, my dad mostly off-key. On every car ride, even if it was only 5 minutes, I was getting tested on what the title of the song was, who’s the artist, and even what album it was on.
I loved every minute of it.
As I got older, my love for music of all genres and artists began to grow. I kept my love for the 70s and 80s that I inherited from my dad, but I got into pop, alternative, some country, and eventually rap and hip-hop.
When I loved a band or an artist, I really loved them. Waiting until midnight for their music to drop. Getting all the merch, cringy alt-band t-shirts that sit in the bottom of my drawer but for some reason, I can’t get rid of them.
From Panic! At The Disco, to Twenty One Pilots, to Fleetwood Mac, to Taylor Swift, the lyrics are all buried deep in my brain and can be recalled at any time, even if I haven’t heard the songs in years.
Concerts allow me to express that love for music not only with the artists themselves, but also the others who attend the concert, and those who go with me.
Over the summer, I was lucky enough to go to two concerts: Simple Plan, Sum 41, and The Offspring combo concert, and Billy Joel. I was able to attend both of these with people who I adore and due to this I had the opportunity to make a once-in-a-lifetime memory.
Billy Joel was an especially incredible experience. This year I moved into a townhouse with three girls who I was so excited to get to know better and be friends with. One of my roommates, Claire, I didn’t know as well as my other two roommates whom I had been on the dance team with. But let me tell you, I knew Claire was one of the biggest Billy Joel fans on campus. My family happened to have an extra ticket…
So, I called her up.
We were on the phone a few hours before the concert in the middle of Times Square coordinating the ticket transfer and train schedule. Right as the concert was starting, I saw her running down the stairs of our section with the biggest smile on her face.
Claire is now one of my most cherished people on this planet, and every time I hear Vienna in the Butler Basement, or Piano Man at 2 a.m., I think of her.