My first concert was a Lady Gaga concert. I remember sitting nervously, my hand bouncing up and down on my knee as I waited for the clock to show 1 p.m. My friends were all seniors, and while they had left school early before, I, as a freshman, had not. When the clock turned, I told my gym teacher I needed to leave early and I walked out the back door to meet my mom (or that’s at least what my note said). They were all already in the car, blasting music as I was (getting ready to be a first-time juvenile), but as soon as I got in, my worries fell off my shoulders.
We went back to Howard’s house and I spent the next couple hours bedazzling a leather jacket, crimping my hair and using black eyeliner to color a lightning bolt on my face.
The ride down was hot and sticky with no air conditioning as we packed ourselves like sardines in the van and stayed that way all the way to Pittsburgh. I had never seen anything so long as the line around the PPG Paints Arena. We stood and waited for hours, singing and dancing along to the music playing on the speaker someone had brought.
Once we were let in, we got the best floor seats we could find and above all the flower crowns and the clouds of glitter, there she was, Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta. Her concert was maybe the most bizarre thing I’ve ever witnessed, as we were still in the “Art Pop” age. Lady Gaga had never been someone I had particularly followed musically, but I grew a new appreciation that night.
Since then, I’ve seen her as an actor, a jazz singer, a yogi, a loud-mouthed Italian and most importantly, an inspiration. Sunday night I watched as Lady Gaga brought home numerous awards at the MTV Video Music Awards. She spent the night in and out of outfits but keeping up her “maskitivism” with each new appearance. From sequins to horns to everything in between, she has given public relations people enough to talk about at the water cooler for the next month.
Watching Lady Gaga’s antics have not always made me feel accepted, but they’ve made me feel like I’m not alone. Any idea crazy enough, she’s probably thought of it, but at the same time, she’s a genuine, loving person. I don’t care what people know me as, but as long as I can feel the ephemeral joy and peace I get when I think of her, I think I’ve made it in life, too.
Of course I’ll never be lucky enough to be standing next to Ariana Grande in the middle of the pandemic, but at least I’m alive. Rain on me, Lady, raindrops like tears to my eyes. You always find the real me, even when there are gray skies.

CHLOE FORBES
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