When One Direction’s stadium tour tickets went on sale last year, and I saw there was a concert in Tampa the day before I turned 21, I knew I had two options: buy tickets or live a lifetime of regret.
Pumped with pure adrenaline and animalistic instinct on that October morning, my roommate and I purchased tickets alongside twelve-year-old fangirls across the United States also hunched over their computers, and marked the date for the following October.
A year later, it’s one hour ‘til 1D and six hours ‘til my ID becomes legal. My roommate and I are surrounded by 60,000 tweens, shameless college girls like ourselves, moms that can’t conceal their own excitement and angsty dads.
The tone for the night was set when my roommate was mistaken for a minor during the security check. After that, the only place we could go was up—literally. So, we left our dignity at the gates and rode the escalator to infinity.
Via: WTSP
Our seats were high enough that when the moon rose above the stadium, we legitimately could have lassoed it. But being in the nosebleed section did not prevent us from jamming any less than the people that threw down $500 to sit on the ground floor.
Since we needed the vision of hawks to notice people coming onstage, sudden manic shrieks from the pre-teens around us alerted us that 5 Seconds of Summer had taken the stage.
I don’t know much about 5SOS — only that they’re Australian and their “She Looks So Perfect” music video is super random, so I just rocked back and forth to all the songs I didn’t know, while the middle school girls were having aneurysms around me.
“Ugh, he’s so hot!” an eight-year-old girl exclaimed about one of the more rebellious-looking band members. When I was eight, the only thing I referred to as “hot” were Bagel Bites fresh out of the microwave.
Via: Pop Dust
5 Seconds of Summer left the stage, and within a matter of seconds I went from feeling like a culturally irrelevant old lady to a 10-year-old.
It was only a matter of minutes until One Direction would come on, and I was disgustingly giddy. My senses increased proportionally to my feelings. In that moment, I could have seen an ant crawl onto the stage.
Then it started to rain. While dads around the stadium rejoiced that they might be off the hook, my mind ruminated over a thought too horrible to consider: 1D would cancel. My roommate and I fled for cover, and bitterly huddled in a nook by the food stand, while the most dedicated fans got drenched in the name of some twisted kind of love.
The rain did pass, and, be still my heart, the show did go on. The stadium lights blinked off, while the music grew louder and the stadium dipped into mild hysteria.
I could not hear anyone’s commentary above my own screaming, and my tunnel vision was so extreme, that I couldn’t tell you what other people were doing from that point onwards. The only time my roommate and I shut up within the next two hours was when Harry appeared onstage with his hair braided on both sides of his head and a bun in the back. It’s just as awful as what you are picturing. Our squeals caught in our throats, and we looked at each other, completely speechless.
Via: CambioYou do you, Harry. We will all try to play along.
There were some things that were expected: like the songs they would perform (that I obsessively studied the week of), and them saying how we are the “best crowd ever.” But then some things were rather unexpected: like an elevating stage, the insane amount of fireworks throughout the concert, them performing some of their older songs, and Liam’s incredible dance moves.
If anything from the weekend of my 21st birthday has not fully recovered, it has been my voice. It was perfection, and it reminded me that there are some things for which I will never be too old. While I agree it’s pretty ridiculous to follow up a 1D concert with your first legal drink, that’s just the story of my life.
Featured photo courtesy of: Bravo
