For most college students, summer is a time for relaxing, catching up with friends and working part-time jobs just to rebuild some finances that were burnt through during the school year. While my summer included these things, it mostly revolved around fitting in as many concerts as possible.
My summer concert series started with a trip to Columbus to see what I would consider my favorite alternative band, The 1975.
This show was simultaneously the best and worst concert experience I have ever had.
Waking up at 7 a.m., traveling 10 hours in a car and waiting in a very unorganized line for eight hours to ultimately end up nowhere near the front of the pit was in no way shape or form fun at all.
However, the experience of seeing this British band in person and confirming that Matty Healy is in fact a real life human being and not some angelic figment of my imagination, was certainly worth the wait.
The next stop in the concert series just so happened to be the ultimate punk-emo experience that is The Vans Warped Tour.
With some absurdly good luck, I somehow managed to weasel my way into getting backstage access for watching my favorite rock band, The Maine.
I’m still not over the fact that I got to take a picture with the lead singer, John O’Callaghan, who is undoubtedly the most handsome man I have ever met in real life.
It’s somewhat ironic that this Arizona emo band provided me with the happiest day of my summer, but that’s the beauty of Warped Tour.
Next up was the concert I completely dominated: Melanie Martinez’s Crybaby Tour. My sister and I somehow managed to pass through 15 or so rows of people all while making small conversation about the weather and Lana Del Rey.
We ended up one row away from barricade and I have the best Snapchat story ever created to prove it.
Last but not least was the triumphant return of Blink-182. You can read more about this on another page but I’ll just keep it simple and say, it was amazing.
While my concert adventures were the undoubtedly “the bomb,” the time spent in between attending all of these concerts was comparably lackluster.
The summer home after your first year away at college is an odd one.
Trying to find your groove back at home is hard considering the abundance of freedom that college brings, and sharing a bathroom with my sister again was not ideal.
It’s also hard reconnecting with high school friends that are all back home from the summer because, as cliché as this sounds, college really does change people.
Throughout all my lonely summer nights there was one thing that consistently was there for me and it’s the same something that I think will follow and guide me for the remainder of my life: music.
I feel bad for the girl who sits in her car and doesn’t belt out her favorite song because she’s scared people might laugh, and I pity the person who has never sat in a pit full of sweaty bodies all pushing and shoving to get closer to the stage.
I beg you to sing horribly loud, dance embarrassingly bad and let music be an anthem for your life because life would be completely and utterly pointless without it.
OLIVIA BURGER
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