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| A New Stage |
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Name: Alyssa Sagona College Attending: SUNY Purchase - Fall 2010 Here I stand, one soul filled with feelings of excitement and freedom among a hundred other souls sharing the same feelings. I feel my heart pounding and my eyes lighting up from rays of light, in all different colors traveling down onto the stage. I look around at the smiles on the people closest to my heart and the crowd of people that surrounds us. Girls and guys, from young teenagers to young adults, come together for a common interest. I feel connected to every person in the room as if we are all sharing the same heartbeat in these moments. As the loud sound flows from the amplifiers through the air to my ears I feel the music take over my body as if it has some sort of power. The highs and lows of the music correspond to the pressure in my body. The band begins to play and the crowd shifts in all different directions. In the middle of the crazy movement I stand in one place and take it all in. It’s overwhelming to be a part of the scene, where the music is all that matters at the moment. When I first heard the term “show,” I pondered what it would be like to see one. It’s like a concert, except it is usually smaller and people don’t just sit in seats and watch. Kids are free to enjoy the show however they want, which means dancing, moshing, skanking, crowd surfing, anything. I never thought that these “shows” would have such an impact on my life. I had no idea what to expect going to my first show. I went with my best friends to The Crazy Donkey, a venue in Farmingdale on Long Island, to see a punk rock band called Street Dogs. We could hear the music flowing from inside as we paid at the door. When we walked into the venue, a warm up band was playing and there wasn’t too much excitement in the crowd but it was still early in the night. Later on as my friends and I were anxiously waiting for the next band to come on stage, the room got darker and filled with more and more people. I could hear my heart beating over all the voices and noise. The lights came on and the whole crowd started screaming. The band walked on stage and immediately the sound of their instruments blasted through the amplifiers and filled the room. The beat of the drums matched my heartbeat. Suddenly I got pushed to the side from the kids forming a circle in the middle of the floor. Through all the pushing and shoving, my friends and I moved to the front, where the most amount of people were in the most confined space and everyone was reaching to get closer to the stage. Being rather short, I couldn’t see everything happening and it felt like so much was happening at once. My best friend standing behind me picked me up and held me in the air. In that instant I saw everything: the band, the lead singer, the crazy lights and the crowd pulsating with their hands in the air; all in sight, I saw the living system of a “show”. I wanted to capture this moment in time. I held onto these few seconds above the ground for as long as I could, for in this moment, I have never felt more alive. The music took over and nothing else was important. Even though this moment was as fast as the pounding in my chest, it was an incredible turning point in my life. Every day feels the same to me: wake up, go to school, go to practice, go to work, and repeat. Being a musician myself, music is what brings color to my life. Whenever there is an upcoming show, I take the opportunity to go because it takes me away from my own reality. The live music, the shows, and scenes with the most interesting kids I could meet are where I feel liberated. It has made me who I am today. Once a shy girl who kept to herself, I am now a strong, outspoken young woman. Going to shows and being able to let go has given me confidence to do anything I set my beating heart inside me to do, like meeting new people, seeing new places, and most importantly, beginning a new stage of my life. |
