Narritive

                                                    “It Just Takes Some Time”

Standing in the middle of a crowded room, tired from driving two hours, annoyed from the speeding ticket I got from a rude cop, noise filling my ears and people pushing against me, in any other situation this would be a horrendous experience. But in this case it was a small price to pay to see my favorite band play live. Whether in playlists on my iPod, background music in episodes of One Tree Hill or Drew Barrymore in Never Been Kissed. Jimmy Eat World has been a constant in my life for so long that I cannot even remember the last time I didn’t have the chorus to “The Middle” bouncing around in my head.

Waiting in the pit of the House of Blues with my best friend felt like an eternity, surrounded by slightly tipsy girls who are squealing at an annoyingly loud rate pushed their way through the crowd to the front. This, which would annoy any normal person, only made me realize that my friend and I are standing next to two girls over 6 feet, we had unknowingly made a wall for those behind us to struggle and fidget to look over. Preparing to side-step to my right to save the concert-goers, the curtain opened and the opening act came onto stage and played their opening song. Going to the concert I had no idea who was opening for them and I hadn’t really cared but seeing X Ambassadors, a band who I had never heard of before, play and kill it live, made me feel like I was a part of an elite group who knew that this seemingly unknown band would make it big. Listening to them and seeing their vocalist air grind the night away; I knew that that night would be one that I would not forget anytime soon. And as the curtains closed on their show and the lights rose to prepare us for the main act I could see that I wasn’t the only one who felt that.

The lights went out, the curtains drawn back and out walked Jim Adkins and the rest of Jimmy Eat World. I never heard a crowd of people explode in screams and cheers like the one that night. He greets us and I can feel a huge smile spread on my face, then, he sings “Are You Listening” and the drums start. I don’t know if it was because I was so close and it was a small venue or because it was a show I had been waiting to see for a long time, but when the drums hit, I could feel it deep in my chest, in my soul. Watching them play the songs that I had listened to and sang along to for years was incredible, even more incredible was how relaxed and at home they looked on stage in front of so many people. You could see that they genuinely loved what they are doing. I could go on and on about how amazing the experience was to see them live and how talented they are, because they truly are. But that concert was more than a chance to discover a new band who I have been listening to non-stop or to see a band that was my salvation through middle school and high school. It rekindled something inside of me that I didn’t know was gone, and it’s hard to explain but after seeing them I knew that music and live shows were too important to me to have them be things that I just do. And in an age where kids my age are suppose to know what they want to do with their lives and where they want to be in 5 years, direction was something that I yearned for and again Jimmy Eat Worlds’ music was what helped see me through it in an unforeseen way. I don’t know how I am going to go about fulfilling that fire that was lit inside of me that night but I know that if I get discouraged or distracted, I will hear a song that will without doubt restore faith in myself because music has that ability to it where it can help those who didn’t know they needed it.