I hate country music. For those who have met me, I am sure that determining I am not a country-music-lover is fairly easy. I never thought, in a million years, I would find myself in a crowd of 2,000 people wearing cowboy hats, Timberland boots, Carhartt attire, and matching camouflage sweatshirts until I was in the center of one of these crowds last night.
I was nervous.
I have always told myself to try new things—whether that be the chicken chalupa box I ordered for the first time from Taco Bell last night or the ten pairs of shoes I tried on at Nordstrom Rack today. Although, this "new thing" happened to be one I would never expect myself to try.
The L.L. Bean country concert in Freeport, Maine was heavily anticipated by friends of mine, and I heard about it nearly ten times before I decided to attend. My initial plan was to spend the day shopping with my friends and then leave afterward so they could enjoy the concert.
After a few hours of walking through the Freeport shops, I thought back to how I should spend my life trying new things—and my friends must have convinced me well enough that I must stick to this.
A few hours passed and I was soon in a crowd of people singing along to Cassadee Pope and Chase Rice. I must say—both of them had good voices, and with my friends' positive energy, I knew it would be a great night no matter what. As Cassadee Pope began singing known songs of my liking, like Cheap Trills by one of my favorite pop-sensations, SIA, I actually found myself singing! At a country concert!
The people around me were extremely nice. I never expected to receive any compliments in the midst of 2,000 people singing along to country, but a woman approached me and truly made my day with how kind she was. I began to notice that the environment was very nice, the country-music-lovers around me were kind, and that I was surviving the first country concert that I swore I would never go to.
Although it is likely the only country concert I will ever attend, I made it through, had a great time with my friends, and got to hear a cover of Cheap Thrills. I was definitely able to check the "try new things" column off my bucket list and astounded both myself and my friends as my pop/indie music taste found itself in the midst of the country concert last night.
Truly, I had a great time, and although country music is still not my cup of tea, living in the moment is extremely important and I definitely believe that I did just that.
