Tuesday, June 19, 2018

A Musical Experience of a Lifetime

Anyone who knows anything at all about me, knows of my love of music. Music is powerful. It helps distract and relax, or it can help you recharge and get pumped up to meet the world head-on. Music has the ability to heal the soul and make your spirits soar. It's always awesome to discover new songs and new artists that help express all of the many emotions you feel at any particular time. And there is nothing better than going to a concert to see your favorite band.

Since my life is anything but that of a "normal" teen, concerts are a way of allowing me to escape my medical world for a few hours and feel that sense of being normal. I'm lucky in that I've been fortunate enough to attend quite a few concerts in my short time here, in between all of my hospitalizations of course! While it's physically draining to go to, the memories of seeing my favorite acts help to overcome some of the pain.

For this past week, my mom was able to score tickets to arguably one of the hottest bands on the planet right now and one of my personal favorites - Imagine Dragons! As the venue is located a fair distance from the train stop, and parking is almost always very limited, we got wheelchair access tickets so that I wouldn't have to worry about the pain from walking and standing in line. You see, when I walk, my joints like to pop in and out of place which is quite painful. Or someone could say, it's tear-inducing, scream-worthy pain after only a short while! So my wheelchair allows me to get places that I'd like to go but otherwise wouldn't be able to without tears streaming down my face (which has happened at too many concerts!).

I was so excited to go on night 1 of the concert, I had been looking forward to it for months considering it's been a very challenging year for me in terms of my health. Everything was going great until Imagine Dragons took the stage and at that very moment, the crowd stood up and I couldn't see anything as my wheelchair puts me at about 4 feet tall and it seemed like the people directly in front of us were these giant basketball players or something. It was heartbreaking to have tickets to my favorite band and not actually be able to SEE them perform. Although I must say that they sounded great!

I'm sure I'm not the only one who has had difficulty in this type of situation, so I tweeted at Budweiser Stage (the venue for this concert), asking if they've ever considered moving their wheelchair accessible seats to the front of the sections so that people like me would be able to see. What happened next was so far beyond anything that I could have hoped for. When I reached out to Budweiser Stage, all I was hoping for was to put the idea out there that they needed to reconsider their disability sections, so that everyone can enjoy their favorite acts. Well, Budweiser Stage and LiveNation reached back out to me, and offered me the opportunity of a lifetime:

A Meet & Greet with Imagine Dragons and an opportunity to SEE the show!



I can't even put words to how much this meant to me. Imagine Dragons is one of my favorite bands because I can identify with a lot of their songs on a personal level. They believe in acceptance for all, which is so important in today's world, where at times there might seem that there is a huge divide based upon our differences. Sharing messages of anti-bullying, of accepting everyone for who they are at this exact moment, is essential for uniting us all once more. One of the most powerful moments of the concert was when Dan Reynolds, the lead singer, opened up about his struggles with mental health (depression) and told the crowd that it wasn't a weakness to be diagnosed with a mental illness or to seek help for it. For a hugely popular band to give this message to the crowd was a great example of a band using it's influence to do something amazing. Thank you Dan, Wayne, Ben, and Daniel for not only the great music, but for bringing light to the issues that effect so many of us today. It was such an honor to have been able to meet you!

Thank you SO MUCH to Mr. Adrian Walker and Mr. Ethan Wright for allowing me to have the most amazing experience that I know I won't soon forget. It's people like you who help make this world a bit brighter for people like me.