So, as many of you probably know, I recently went to a Nightwish and Volbeat concert in Sauget, Illinois.

It was definitely a life-changing event.

But first, I will start off with how the day went before the concert...

As anyone who read the Pantagraph today knows, three counties in Southern Illinois have been declared disaster areas. I was out driving with Erik's mother in the hurricane-force winds. The highest recorded gust of wind during that particular storm was 106 mph... We watched the roof get ripped off a trailer's porch. Our car was pelted with leaves and large sticks. We had to take a different route than usual because a large tree fell over and knocked out about 3 power lines all at once, and also blocked off an entire road. To get where we were going, we had to go around, drive over a couple of trees, drive over about 2-3 downed power lines, and drive THROUGH a tree. (The purpose of this trip was for me to get my car to campus so I could move out in time to get to the concert.) We finally got on the road that lead to where my car was parked, and we found ourselves close, but we met our match. A tree across the road with a downed power line inside it. We tried to evade it by going into a field, but we got stuck... We spun our tires, I pushed, we had other people help, we put sticks under the tires... Nothing could save us from the mud. I ended up running to my car and driving it back. (By this point, people had cleared the tree from the road.) We decided to drive my car back to the dorms to get Erik so he could help, but both roads were blocked. On our way back to her van in the field, Anne spyed some sheet-shingles that had been ripped off a house during the storm. We put those on top of the sticks, and her car finally got out. At this point, we didn't know where to go, so we took some back roads, found most of them blocked by fallen trees, but eventually got back to campus. Logan Fox's car was crushed by a tree, half of the end-lounge windows on my building were demolished, trees were uprooted everywhere... It was like a hurricane had gone through Carbondale. The power--of course--was out, so I had to climb up, then down 12 flights of stairs to take things to my car to try to move out on time, before the elevators were working (on emergency power). I ended up leaving Carbondale almost an hour late. On my way out, I accidentally ended up rear-ending a girl at a stoplight-turned-stopsign. No damage was done, but we exchanged information nonetheless.

(The concert was supposed to be at 7, which I would have been late for, but the weather caused them to push it back an hour.)

Then I was on my way to Columbia. There was a lot of flooding along the way, but the condition of everything improved as I got further and further west.

When I got to Audra's house, I had some pizza, then washed the mud (from getting the car stuck) off my arms, legs, face, and hair.

Audra had left me directions, which were simple to follow. And I got there in time to find that the entire place was about the size of a high school gym. I was in the back until people started lining up behind me (we were pretty much against the back wall). I found out how to use little pockets of people moshing to my advantage, so I ended up starting about 30-40ft from the stage and by the end was close to 10-15 feet from the stage. Both Marco and Tuomas looked at me!!! THE CONCERT WAS WORTH THE HORRIBLE DAY. IT WAS SO AMAZING THAT ALL THE CAPITAL LETTERS IN THE WORLD CAN'T DESCRIBE HOW I FELT.

They started with "7 Days to the Wolves" and ended with "Wish I Had an Angel."

IT WAS SO AWESOME!!!


Anyway, the most life-changing part came after the show. After the concert was over, most people left, but I noticed a small group of people hanging out by the fence around the buses. I decided to hang out over there as well, and was rewarded.

John TwoHawks was the first to come out, and that was pretty cool.

A few minutes later, Tuomas Holopainen (keyboards, songwriter, composer) came out and stood next to him. He had a conversation with John and the people John was talking to... Then he turned, looked at me, and asked "How are you doing?"






I was speechless. All I could do was nod.


What would you have done if one of your idols, one of the most important people in your life asked you the same?

That was the single most awesome moment I have yet had in my life. (As far as I can remember right now.)