Two years ago, I took a step out of my comfort zone into the nearby city of Atlanta, Georgia with practically half of my senior class for the Music Midtown festival held in Piedmont Park. I had always dreamed of attending a music festival, but never had the courage or the means to do so until then. But boy, am I glad I took the plunge. That weekend, some of my very best friends and I spent two days wandering around in the crazy heat amongst the tens of thousands of people listening, dancing, and jumping around like crazy people to some of the best names in music performing all day and night. A few of my favorite memories of all time come from that September weekend of 2014, and this year, I was lucky enough to go back.
As I wandered around the park this past weekend with a couple of the closest friends I've made in college, memories from the past year flooded my mind. We walked past the small stage where I saw my now favorite band perform for the first time as a midday filler, and we watched them headline the festival later that night. We drank the same $4 bottles of water I remember complaining about the last time, and ate the same $7 pizza slices (you gotta do what you gotta do). We crowded the same stages, we waited in the same billion-people-long bathroom lines, we stepped over the spot where some my best high school pals and I sat on the hill during the closing show, soaking in the last moments of the perfect weekend.
While this weekend sparked so many memories and similarities from the last time I walked through Piedmont Park, so much has changed in my life in the two years between my experiences at Music Midtown. I've discovered new bands, and dropped some of my old favorites. I've left my hometown, and I've made myself a new one. I've gained new friends I wouldn't trade for the world, and I've and lost some old ones I wish I could have back. But amongst all the crazy changes these past two years have brought with them, this weekend reminded me how important it is to remember. Remember the good times, remember the bad. Remember the big things like watching your idols up on stage from a spot on the front row, and remember the little things like tiny spots on grassy hills. Because when life gets as chaotic and stressful and as we all know it can be, we need those happy memories to cling on to. We need to remember the good things like best friends and live music and dancing with strangers to get us through the not-so-good things life tends to throw our way. Keep a hold on those little memories, because those little things turn into big things. And those big things will stick with you, and they'll come to you just when you need them.
