Spontaneous decisions come in packages, and one of those packages was enabled by Judah & The Lion. It was also sponsored by Starbucks, kind of.
On a Wednesday afternoon (in that Starbucks I mentioned), I saw the heavens open up. Out floated a concert ticket for that night, right into my lap. Okay, maybe I found it on Facebook, but still. My eyes lit up like the homeless man I’d just seen accept a cheeseburger. If it was a race, I would’ve been inside the Georgia Theatre before his teeth hit the patty.
The opening band was Colony House, and they looked like you might think: a bunch of eclectic kids behind an assortment of glossy instruments. What you’d never guess was how intense of a performance they gave, tearing up those pretty, shiny instruments and dancing across the stage like they were having the time of their lives.
“I don’t know if I’ll ever be as crazy happy as those guys are every night they go on stage”, I yelled straight into my friend’s ear. When Judah & The Lion took their place, it was as if they had absorbed and magnified the energy from the opening set. I managed to pick my jaw off the ground at some point, although it was stuck in a massive grin.
Throughout the show, Judah Akers (the lead singer) would sporadically vocalize some of the emotions charging the performance. At one point, he gave the typical “you can do anything you set your mind to” spiel, and I thought wow, here we go. Another guy from a successful band is gonna tell everyone their dreams can come true because his did.
I took a step back to gain some perspective, and realized ‘anything’ doesn’t have to be taken as a big-scale concept. Maybe I can do anything, and I’m going to start right now.
So, it became my mission to channel and maintain that happiness I had seen and felt, while doing these small anythings that consisted of, well, whatever I wanted. I no longer needed a reason to do something other than just wanting to.
The next day, I went to French barefoot. There’s something liberating about ditching your sandals and feeling the cool concrete under your toes. My mood was noticeably bubblier than normal for a Thursday afternoon, and the millions of seemingly irrelevant verb forms in the French language couldn’t phase me. I felt bad for all the feet cooped up in sneakers.
It was all nice and great until an army of teeny pinecones started attacking the undersides of my feet on a pathway back to the dorms. No regrets, but I’d probably take flip flops to class number two.
A few days later, I was grabbing lunch in Snelling with a friend who wanted ice cream on the way out. I agreed, a strong believer in a midday bit of rocky road. I don’t know if hurling ice cream cones at busses passing by would make it on the list of thoughts to cross a normal person’s mind, but this time I didn’t suppress the urge. I mean, I can do anything, right?
I probably shouldn’t encourage projectile food items in the direction of moving vehicles, but I guess we’re all allowed to let our inner 5 year old out to play from time to time. At least I’d hope so.
My next anything was a little less disrespectful to the University that so kindly let me in. I’d wanted a nose piercing since I’d worn a fake one to Music Midtown in 2016, and it was time.
I went all the way to pain and wonder, picked a stud, and was ready to go. Then, I realized I couldn’t really afford to drop $60 if I wanted to have the funds to feed myself and use shampoo to wash my hair. Option #2 was crusty bar soap… I don’t have to live lavish, but that’s a no from me. Gotta be ballsy on a budget I s’pose.
My list of anythings keeps growing, and my regrets are nonexistent. If you’ve made it to the end of this article, I think it’s a sign you should start one too. Shouts to Jonah!
