I was a big KPop fan in high school. I was lowkey obsessed with it throughout high school and going into my first year in college. The music in my iPod and phone was more than 80% K-Pop. The one thing that I so wanted to do when I got a job was to attend a KPop concert. Any KPop concert. And, lo, an opportunity arose.

Spring semester of my first year of college, I saw a post about a KPop concert in New Jersey. Right away, I texted my sister and asked her if she would be willing to drive me all the way to New Jersey for KPop concert. I had already clicked on that link, figured out the time and cost to go to New Jersey by train, car and plane. I looked at the ticket price and was so ready to click on buy. Then my sister said no. I figured I would buy it when the time came. There was no way I was going to not go to this concert, if my parents allowed me to.

Then, a couple days later, I stumbled upon a post on Facebook for one of my all time favorite, non-KPop, non-American, Christian contemporary band, Hillsong. The concert was around the same time as the KPop one. You’d think I would have a hard time deciding between the two but, I set an alarm for three weeks in advance, when the tickets for Hillsong would come out, and I think I was one of the first people to buy tickets when they came out. I didn’t even think about it. I had been dreaming of going to a KPop concert, but Hillsong was automatic. It was going to happen; I was just waiting for the day.

The concert was as Boston University. My two sisters, older and younger, my older sister’s boyfriend and I got there almost an hour earlier than we were supposed to. We got in, bought some t-shirts and went into the stadium. When the lights went out, the feeling was something that could never compare to anything else.

Let me give a little run down of who Hillsong is. Hillsong is a Christian bands that sings Christian contemporary songs, worship, praise and very pop sounding. They’re from Australia but are known all over the world. People sing their songs everyday in church, I sing their songs whenever I have the time and it always empowers me. Their concert sold out in the first few minutes of going on sale. I was lucky to get those tickets, no matter how expensive they were. At the time of their concert, their most popular song was “Oceans (Where Feet May Fail),” a song that literally made you want to jump around, scream, fly and sing at the top of your lungs. It was the reason many wanted to experience the concert. If that is how it felt when I had just headphones on, I thought, how would it feel to be in the presence of hundreds of people joining in the songs and praising the Lord together.

I don’t know how other concerts work but, this concert was different. People were singing along, screaming, raising their hands and worshiping the Lord at the top of their lungs. Nobody cared how they sounded, eyes closed, hands raised, just singing and taking in the feeling at that moment. It was so free, no one got tired, people stood up the whole time and, when everything was done, we wanted it to keep going. I wanted to stay there forever, no joke. People had these songs memorized in their hearts and brains. People did not go to be entertained but to actually worship. It wasn’t as if we were all sitting down, watching the performers perform and then clapping in the end of each performance. We were also performing. It is one of the single most wonderful experiences I can say I have had in my life and I always want to go back to that moment. That moment when you think they’re done but they keep going and where you literally feel like crying when you walk out the stadium. It was so wonderful and I would not have been anywhere else at that moment, not even watching an EXO concert in New Jersey. Well, maybe next time, if it’s not conflicting with a Hillsong concert.