If you give a girl a cowbell, lots of things will happen.

She'll go to Mississippi State, she'll get it decorated, she'll have the time of her life, etc. etc.

But if you give this girl a cowbell, she'll probably give it away to Charlie Puth.

Now you're probably thinking to yourself, self, what the heck is Shan talking about?

And you're probably right for thinking that, but let me explain myself.

When I got my first cowbell, it was just a plain old cowbell. Nothing special at all. One day one of my friends suggested I get it decorated, so I took it down to Occasions and told them to make it look nice. And boy did they. My cowbell is one of my favorite things in the whole world. It means so much to me to have something that is so special to my school, and it means even more to me because mine is unique.

Fast forward to December of 2015. My best friends from high school, Jonathan and Mikaela, and I went to Jingle Ball in Atlanta. Mind you, I have never been to a pop concert before and I had no idea what to expect. We went for Fifth Harmony and Shawn Mendes, but came out liking this upcoming artist named Charlie Puth.

You may or may not have heard of Charlie Puth. The way I had to explain him to my friends the past couple weeks is as the guy who sings the song from Fast and Furious, or the guy who sings One Call Away. At Jingle Ball, Charlie sang only a few songs because he hadn't released his album yet. He told us his album was coming out in January and that we needed to look out for it.

January came and my friend Jonathan texted Mikaela and me about the album and how we needed to buy it right then, so we did. And ever since then, my life has been changed.

I listen to that album ALL. THE. TIME. It's one of my favorites. It got me through second semester of freshman year, and it got my friends through some tough breakups. It's one of those albums that you can listen to no matter how you're feeling. I could be sad AF and cry over "We Don't Talk Anymore" or I could be having the best day ever and feel the need to jam out to "Dangerously."

It really is a great album. If you don't own it, you can buy it here.

Fast forward to June 2016, when Charlie Puth announced that he was going on tour. Jonathan, Mikaela, and I jumped at the opportunity to see him live. We also deemed it 150,000 percent necessary to spend a little extra money to meet him and take pictures with him.

After we bought our tickets, we played the waiting game. We waited for FOUR WHOLE MONTHS to meet Charlie Puth. We went on diets, we bought outfits, and we bought gifts, all in preparation to meet Charlie Puth.

Then, on Saturday, October 1st, we met Charlie Puth.

People keep asking me how it was, and what was it like, etc. and all I can say is it was THE BEST NIGHT OF MY LIFE. My friends and I spent so much effort, time, money, blood (literally), sweat and tears to get to this point, and we made it. Seeing one of your favorite artists with some of your favorite people is an indescribable experience. It's one that I will cherish for the rest of my days.

The weekend went a little something like this:

Friday night: I drove to Montevallo to spend the night with Jonathan.

Saturday morning 5 a.m.: Jonathan and I left Montevallo to pick up Mikaela at UAB.

Saturday morning 11 a.m.: Jonathan, Mikaela, and I arrived at Atlanta and took pictures in Centennial Olympic Park.

*here's a few of them*

Saturday afternoon 12:30 p.m.: Jonathan, Mikaela, and I waited in line to meet Charlie Puth.

Saturday afternoon 3:30 p.m.: Jonathan, Mikaela, and I went into The Tabernacle and waited again to meet Charlie Puth.

Saturday afternoon approx. 4:30-4:50: JONATHAN, MIKAELA, AND I WENT TO SOUNDCHECK AND MET CHARLIE PUTH.

*ALSO WE WERE ON CHARLIE'S SNAP CHAT STORY SO THERE'S THAT*

We all brought Charlie something cutesy so he would remember us. Jonathan brought at cow because at Montevallo the don't have a football team. They have purple and gold side. The purple side's mascot is a cow and Jonathan is on purple side, therefore Charlie got a cow.

I brought Charlie a cowbell. My cowbell means so much to me. This school means so much to me, and I wanted to be Hail State AF in our picture together. So, I bought Charlie a cowbell and had it decorated to match mine. Mine has my name on the front and Hail dear ol' State on the back. Charlie's has his name on the front and Nine Track Mind (his album title) on the back.

AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST. Mikaela brought Charlie a CAPE. A CAPE Y'ALL. And you're probably like, "what's the big deal?" WELL THE BIG DEAL IS IT'S SO FREAKIN COOL. In Charlie's song "One Call Away" he says "Superman got nothin on me." MIKAELA GOT HIM A CAPE BECAUSE HE'S LIKE SUPERMAN AND IT'S SO CLEVER OMG. AND THEY STOOD LIKE HE WAS A SUPERHERO AND I AM HERE FOR IT.

We all gave him something that meant a lot to us and I even bled. I cut my hand on my cowbell trying to keep it from clanging and it bled like all day. #HailState.

And the rest is history. We had the best time, and it was a perfect night.

Thank you to my mom for always letting me go to concerts, my friends for going with me, and Charlie Puth for putting on a FANTASTIC concert.

I highly recommend, 10/10.

Love,

Shan

P.S.

WE ALSO MET HAILEY KNOX WHO OPENED FOR CHARLIE AND SHE WAS AMAZING!!! CHECK OUT HER EP HERE.

HERE'S US WITH HER:

Thanks, Hailey! We love you!!!