I got a really exciting text message last week.
One of my best friends got free tickets to see Fall Out Boy at her college. I was envious and called her names—that’s how we roll—and then she said “so are you free on Friday?”
I took back all of the names I called her immediately.
I was excited and my 7th grade soul started singing all of my favorite Fall Out Boy songs. Because AAAAAAM I MORE THAN YOU BARGAINED FOR YEEEEEEEEEET?
I told her I had to talk to my mom, which also felt very 7th grade, but it was true—I needed a sounding board for figuring out if I could handle going to a concert. I started going through all of the logistics.
Could I handle the travel?
I would have to travel about two hours to get to my friend’s place. Even if someone drove me there and I could sleep in the car, travel takes a lot out of me. It’s disorienting and draining. There aren’t many positions in a car I can get in to maximize blood flow. I can’t stop and jump up and down every now and then if I need to help get blood moving around to my body.
Could I handle the social stress?
I love my best friends more than anything and my closest friends and I have gotten to the point where we can communicate in grunts and sighs and TV quotes. However, she’s not the only person I’d probably encounter. She has roommates, who are super nice, but I don’t have an established rapport with them. That’s a stressor when you have anxiety, especially that of the social variety.
In addition to that, we’d be at a concert. We’d be two people surrounded by a crowd full of humans. We wouldn’t necessarily have to talk to them, but they’d be all around us. That’s enough to make anyone want to pull inward.
Could I handle a night away from home?
I am the princess from The Princess and the Pea. I wish I could be super chill and easy going, but I am the pickiest person in the world when it comes to beds. I get terrible hip pain when I sleep on any bed that isn’t mine and have to load up on ibuprofen to dull the ache the morning after.
I had to consider if I’d have enough energy over the weekend to handle the pain of sleeping in a bed that wasn’t mine because coping with pain requires a tremendous amount of energy.
(Side note: my friends are angels. They will give up their beds so I can have the comfy ones and sleep on floors for me if their couches aren’t available. I want to cry thinking about it because I am the luckiest.)
Could I handle a concert? (the biggest question)
I haven’t been to a concert in maybe a year.
When I’ve been at my healthiest and most fit, I have thought that concerts were going to be the end of me. It’s a strange dichotomy to be in heaven in the presence of the musicians who are your idols as they performing the songs that are the soundtrack to your favorite memories while your body feels like it’s going into shutdown; but that’s just how it goes. You’re smiling, in awe of how you can be in so much bliss and so much agony at the same time.
Most of the concerts/shows I’ve been to are smaller ones. I’ve been familiar with the venues and have known that they have seating available. They’ve been close to home, close to a safe place to rest. And what comforts me most is that if something happened to me—maybe if I fainted or had an incident—I’d be close to my doctors.
This is where I had to think hardest. I couldn’t even remember the last concert I’d been to. If I went to this particular concert, this would be jumping into a BIG one. I’d be putting a lot of responsibility on my friend to look after me: if someone went wrong, it’d be all on her to take care of me until my parents could get me. I also considered the fact that I might even have to leave her during parts of the show to rest, which is a huge bummer—when you bring a friend, you want to be with them the whole time.
I would be standing for hours. That could mean sweating for hours, aching for hours, cramping for hours. It would turn into a psychological game as most pain does—can you force yourself to keep enduring it? Can you ignore the pain to get through to the fun? Or will the pain win out?
*
I came to the conclusion that I should stay home. Jumping into this would be too much—currently, I’m not at a good health level to take this type of adventure on. If the circumstances were different—if I didn’t have to travel to the show, maybe I could do it. If it was a band with low key music rather than the upbeat dance-y music that makes everyone want to jump up and down for three hours, maybe I could handle it. But this wasn’t the right one. It wasn’t the right time.
It totally broke my heart, especially the 7th grade heart that will always beat inside me ferociously. But I had to make the decision that was best for my health, even if was a huge bummer.
There will be other shows, there will be other opportunities. But what matters most is I have a super sweet friend who understands why I had to say no and that I can feel good about my decision making process because I know it’s in my best interest.