3.4 Ten Feet Away

Normally I’d say traveling four hours away for one concert is a bit crazy, but lucky for me I have my friend Madisen who has always been down for a little craziness. The kind of friend who will pack their bags with no idea where we’re even going. Everyone needs someone in their life who will push them, because leaving your comfort zone seems to be when life’s best moments occur. Looking back now, I must give her some credit. She listened to me all morning as we were getting ready for the concert. 

Now standing in line at the venue I could tell she was preparing herself for a day filled with music she couldn’t care less about. We found ourselves in a conversation about McDonald's of all things, when I turned to face the back of the line to turn away from the beating down sun. Looking up, I saw her face turn from relaxed to scrunched in confusion. Finally, she uttered, “Isn’t that the band we’re seeing?” I completely froze. Did she just say what I thought she said? “Lydia isn’t that The Maine?” she asked again this time firmly. Suddenly she grabbed my arm and pulled me around. There they were. Maybe ten feet away. The band I had been embarrassingly obsessed with since middle school. That’s when the existential fear set it.

What  was I supposed to do? Speak to them? Take a picture with them? Pretend as though I’m a normally functioning human seemed impossible in that moment. Madisen interrupted my internal freak out and stated, “Give me your phone. I’ll take a picture of you with them when they get down by us.” What was she implying? That I stop this internal monologue to live in the moment? She couldn’t be, because she should know me better than that. I suddenly forgot what language I spoke. Was it English? French? I was sure I knew how to speak, but there weren’t any words coming out of my mouth.

Just as they approached, I heard, “Hey could I take a picture with you guys?” Wait did that come from me, because the amount of eye contact I was now having with the drummer would imply that words must of escaped my mouth somehow. Madisen quickly grabbed my phone and nudged me forward. In the twenty second interaction with them, I’m not even sure I was breathing. 

As the loyal friend she is, she took approximately seven hundred pictures of us. Every one of them showing an increasingly more shocked version of my face. Looking back now it seems so foolish, they’re just humans like the rest of us. However, it can be a little shocking when the people you’ve looked up to turn out to be decent people. It’s even crazier when you have a full panic attack, and then against all odds, everything turns out to be okay. The panic shocked kid got her happy ending. Thankfully I had someone to document the moment, as I managed to tip toe outside my comfort zone in a very unexpected way. I will always remember this day.