I go to a small liberal arts college in Appleton, Wisconsin-- somewhere you would never expect important public figures to show up. This would be why I was so surprised and excited when I found out that Senator Bernie Sanders would be coming to give a speech.

On the day of the rally, doors were supposed to open at 9:30 a.m., so my friend and I decided to be there at seven. We waited in line for what seemed like ages, until the line finally started moving at 9:30 a.m. It still took a while to get inside the building but eventually we made it, and it was time for security check, fun! (Not).

Once we were done with security, my friend was pulled aside by a woman who asked her if she was excited to be here and why she was a Bernie supporter. She then proceeded to ask us if we would like to sit behind Bernie on stage during his speech and, of course, without even hesitating we said yes!

She gave us bright green wristbands and led us to an area of the building where the other selected people were waiting. We couldn’t believe this was happening to us. I was so excited and instantly let my family know about the exciting news.

Every time I had watched a political speech I noticed people behind the politician but never really knew what that was all about or how it worked. They do it to represent the diverse population that supports the politician. As I looked around me, I noticed that everyone was different in respect to race, age or gender.

When the time finally came to go on stage, we were taken backstage and the woman who had initially given us the wristbands placed everyone in their corresponding seats. She moved us around and in the end I ended up on one of the sides. I was a bit bummed because that meant I wouldn’t get to be on camera, but it was still super exciting.

While we waited for Bernie to come out we kept chanting and entertaining the crowd. I am a theater major so being on the stage of the Appleton Performing Arts Center and looking out at the crowd was a dream. About 20 minutes must have gone by until finally the music stopped and Bernie Sanders was introduced. When he came out we all went wild-- the crowd, us, the volunteers, everyone. He talked for more than an hour and addressed many important issues: affording college, climate change, the middle class…The speech is available online and I would recommend that everyone watch it because it was truly inspiring.

Every time he finished making a statement we all cheered, and being on stage you felt everyone’s eyes on you, but we were all united, supporting this incredible man.

At the end of his speech, he went to shake hands with people from the front row and us, but I missed my chance to shake his hand. I was upset about that but quickly forgot about it because, all in all, I had had the opportunity to stare at the back of Bernie Sanders’ head during his entire speech.

When I had decided to come to college in such a small city, I never would have imagined I would even get to see someone as important as him. This was an experience I will most definitely never forget.