Rainbow Youth Dance

I hurried to get dressed with a black shirt with the sleeves rolled up past my cast. I also wore a red tie and black skinny jeans. I could only sing so we had to use the track guitar. Last thing I had to do was my vocal warmups. I finished and went to the side of the stage. My mind was swirled with thoughts as the video ran and our cue was said to go on stage. My microphone was on me and I was as ready as I was ever going to be. We all ran on stage and started to play. We started with undisclosed desires. Since I didn’t have my guitar to play it gave me a chance to rest and just

I am fixing my hair, and humming along to a song I heard on the radio, when I hear the concert start. I heard the announcements begin and the lights go dim. There was people all around me. People tripped over cords or called out demands. Some had microscopic mics on their faces, some had been putting on makeup on.

I joined in as we yelled towards the stage, our words on repeat. 10 more minutes passed and the crowd sang lyrics to their song and I could hear my voice getting raspy, which I liked. I liked that there was a story behind why I wouldn’t be talking the next day, and how I wouldn’t be able to tell that story until I got my voice back.

The wind tousled my hair around as I closed my eyes and took deep, shaky breaths. The faint sound of the crowd cheering upstage didn't help with my nerves, so, instead, I turned my ears to the delicate waves rolling up the beach. I opened my eyes and gazed out at the lake; now an open canvas for the golden sun which had began setting. Quietly, I plucked each string of my guitar- though I’d already tuned them several times. On the outside, I may have seemed ready, content, and excited; however, on the inside, no matter how tranquilizing the back stage scenery was, I was terrified to the core.

Over eighteen thousand people, of all ages, gender, shape, and size, had assembled for the sole purpose of listening to one band perform. Almost giddy with anticipation, I turned to look at my friend, ignoring the dizzying drop below, and was ecstatic to see the same level of wonder on her face. Concert had been such a foreign word until now. Lights flared from overhead, coupled with the glow of thousands of flashlights that blinked from the crowd. As the once brightly-lit room suddenly went dim, a deafening wave of screams resounded with enthusiasm. The lead singer crossed the stage trying to build up the already intense fervor that hung palpably in the

Excruciatingly loud noises were coming from every direction, attacking my eardrums as if the sound waves were soldiers in combat. People were pushing and shoving, laughing and crying, acting as if they belonged in an asylum of the deranged. Lights were blinding everyone's eyes but that was the least of their concerns. A loud voice was ringing through the stadium bombarding my ears and the ones of the large sea of people around me. The intense repelling smell of sweat and tears were traveling through the air around me. But my aching feet, sore throat, and watering eyes were the least of my concerns as I, and everyone else were all just trying to reach the same goal. The goal of getting closer to the stage, the music, the artist, the intense

The day of the musical. So many thoughts running through my head. I should’ve told my mom I was ‘sick’ so I didn’t have to go. I just had to suck it up and get through these next two hours and then all would be well. Throughout the musical, I had parts to sing as a background singer but it was nice because I could practically lip sync without anyone noticing. Before I had to recite my line, my stomach was wrenching in fear. I thought to myself, What if I throw up? I would get to leave the room and I wouldn’t have to say my line. I kept thinking of every single scenario that could possibly get me off the stage. Finally, my line came and Ms. Parrish pointed at me. I hesitated, not that much, yet still noticeable enough for everyone to stare at me. “Come on, they’re all starting to look” uttered my friend next to me. I couldn’t bring myself to do it, and instead, my face got red, I started crying, and ran off the stage. Not my best

September 4, 2014. I stood amongst the sweat, the heat, the pushing, and the shoving. It was close to 7 in the evening now. My friends and I hadn’t suffered in humid and over ninety-degree weather like the others. Somehow we managed to get to the front. The security guards came every so often to give us water and we passed it around to our family. We were a family; yet, before this moment I had only known nine people. Six of them stood on the stage. This was my second twenty one pilots concert. I suffered for music, for the feeling of not being alone.

I was at Warped Tour this was my second time at the at the even. It was still before noon, but the temperature was already rising to an uncomfortable level , I could feel sweat beginning to bead on my forehead as I waited for the band to come out. I was about halfway from the from of the crowd to the left side, from the band’s point of view, I was there with my uncle this year. I could smell cigarettes and other things burning around me and being passed throughout the crowd. By this time we had been waiting for only several minutes and all of the people being so densely packed made us all sweaty, but that was nothing compared to what was to come later. Finally, the band came and the lead singer already holding a microphone. With a loud voice that pierced through the pre-existing chatter and screams going throughout the crowd and asked with an already excited voice, “How is everybody today? Scream if you are excited to be here with us!” and with that the entire crowd yelled

After we were done eating, we had to wait for three hours because the concert started at eight. While we were waiting, I was thinking about how silly this whole thing was and why our teacher said this concert would be the best one we would go to this year; we were thirsty, wasting time, and simply bored. I said to myself, “Mrs. Allen, this is not important. Mark Wood is not Justin Bieber, Michael Jackson, or Maroon 5.” The thing that made me the most furious was the fact that we had to fundraise $20,000 for this concert just to have such a bad

It was on April 19 that the Intro to Music class went to the Spring Voice Recital. Due to the last concert, I was excited to listen to the performers this week. Similarly to the other productions, there was anxious chatter upon entering the theater. Over the past couple of weeks, I have grown accustomed to this scene, or atmosphere. Furthermore, I look forward to attending in view of the fact that there seems to be a tight knit community among those who frequent the concerts. I get a sense that everyone knows everyone, and those individuals are exceptionally respectful of not only the performers, but those sitting in the audience as well. With that being said, there were some concerns going into the concert. I was worried I would not be able to connect and keep my full attention on the music because we were told the songs were in a different language. However, this was not the case.

However, that week, I could not be present during practice and most of the Saturday event. The entire week prior, my stomach knotted up as I worried about how they would do on this night as well in the future. As a senior and co-leader, I was burdened with the responsibility of preparing the team. In my head I had a list of everything to do before I left: teach people how to equalize on the soundboard, how to run and create slideshows using ProPresenter, how to balance the stage lights and wall wash, how to play bass guitar, how to sing and so on. There was so much to teach, but so little time. I set out to meet all members one-on-one to discuss their roles in praise team and to also build meaningful relationships with them. I had only taught about half of what I intended when all of a sudden I had to let go of the

Honestly I felt like I was going to puke So we went to go sit on the monster truck they had. we chilled there for a while, which isn't ideal, but yet again its more favorable than puking. Whilst on this monster truck we had a perfect view of one of the stages so we watched motionless in white from afar. So motionless in white is a pretty well known band so there were a lot of people there, so many people, and whilst I wasn't in the crowd it was amazing. I got to listen to their music while listening to all these people cheering for one single band. And it’s wild. Like when you're in the crowd you feel like you're a part of something, like you're surrounded by strangers, but you're all here for one single reason and you don't really think about it until afterwards. But watching a concert from afar is so amazing too, the lead singer dude asked everyone to to put up the horns \m/ and its not really that deep and I don't even listen to Motionless in White, but seeing so many people with their arms up putting up the horns was so amazing because in that moment I realized how many people came to this one parking lot just to listen to music and have fun and let loose and everyone there has some sort of common interest, even though every single person is completely different. and the people there in general were so amazing, even if I only spoke to a few. And I might just be making a

We had to read this paper that told us of our duties and then it was show time. I didn’t have a speech that day so I didn’t think I was going to be speaking, but I got to introduce the second speaker, their evaluator, as well as their summary of their speech. It was a little nerve racking because I wasn’t expecting that. Ava 1 went first, and I felt bad for Oceanik because my full attention wasn’t on her speech since I was preparing for my introduction for speaker 2, who was Phil. I thought I did okay when I was up there. I also felt bad for Phil because I was listening to most of it and it was really good because he included racial names and the LGBTQ community, but near the end, I wasn’t focusing since I was focusing on my ending part. When he came to sit back down, he told me I did a great job. James came up to me and told me to announce that he was going to collect the evaluations from everyone, and once I said it and sat down, Cory thanked me for what I did. After we took a break after a few more speakers, we got into groups and did Table Topics. One of the questions was “What does recovery mean to you?” and once I started talking, I started to cry because I talked about my dad recovering from his work injury. Lucy and Andrew gave me hugs after I sat down and I felt better. Once the Table Topics were cut short, we finished the speeches again. After that, the other teams stood up and

About a year ago, my father, my sister, and I, went to go attend a live concert because I had never viewed one before. Although, both my sister, and father had seen many concerts before me (thank you my beloved family for leaving me alone with no form of entertainment, every time you left for a concert). We planned to see the band Blink182, one of my family’s favorite punk rock bands, in Maine. There are three main parts to this wonderful journey, it begins with the drive, then the actual concert, and finally the drive back, which were all equally entertaining (in my opinion). It was an outdoor concert, but I would have preferred an indoor concert because functioning bathrooms are really important to me, but I did not complain. My sister and I anticipated the day we would leave to see the wonderful Maine we had heard so much about from our father. All we had to do, was wait.