Loving The Sound at My First Concert: The 1975

Twenty-one years and 20 days: that's how long it took me to finally go to my first concert and cross it off my bucket list.

I've always known that I wanted my first concert to be a great one, one with a musical artist I really enjoyed. I didn't want to just sort of like the artist and like just a few songs. I wanted to know the words to the songs I would hear. I wanted to be able to hum and sing along with the singer or band and the rest of the crowd. I wanted to recognize the song being played within the first few seconds. I wanted to connect with the music. I wanted to smile and be happy while listening to quality songs full of emotion.

The 1975 concert at State Farm Center in Champaign, Illinois, definitely fulfilled all of those wishes for my first concert.

My Bucket List

This post has been in my drafts for a while now, but I thought it would be appropriate to finally post since today is my 20th birthday!

I don't know when I started thinking of things to put on my bucket list, but I've come up with a plethora of things since. It's fun to keep a bucket list helps you try to do fun and exciting things. I will be updating this as time goes on, crossing things off as well as adding new things.

Sports

• attend an elite gymnastics meet (completed in May 2012)
• attend an Olympic Games
• attend an Artistic Gymnastics World Championships
• attend an FIG World Cup event (completed March 3, 2018)

• attend an NCAA Women's Gymnastics Championships
• attend an NCAA Men's Gymnastics Championships
• attend an NCAA Women's Gymnastics Regional Championship (completed April 1, 2017)
• attend an NCAA Women's Gymnastics conference championship (preferably Big Tens)
• attend a regular season NCAA women's gymnastics meet
• attend a regular season NCAA men's gymnastics meet
• attend a JO meet (completed March 2, 2018)
• attend a non-artistic gymnastics competition

• meet an Olympian (Shawn Johnson, completed in February 2014, Justin Spring in 2015, Jenny and Monica Rokhman in March 2017, Kyla Ross and Nancy Thies Marshall in April 2017, Nastia Liukin in May 2017)
• meet one of my favorite NCAA gymnasts (Alina Weinstein, completed in February 2015)
  



Me with Illinois alum and All American gymnast Alina Weinstein

• meet an elite gymnast (Nica Hults, completed in August 2014)
• meet my favorite gymnasts ever, Sarah Finnegan and Nastia Liukin (Nastia Liukin, completed in May 2017)
• learn to do a handstand
• learn to do a back handspring or some sort of salto
• do the splits
• try surfing
• meet an action sports athlete (Andy Macdonald; Greg Lutzka; Kelvin Hoefler; Manny Santiago; completed in June 2015)
• meet my favorite action sports athlete, Ryan Sheckler
• attend an action sports event (Dew Tour, completed in June 2015)
• attend a professional skateboarding contest
• attend a professional surfing contest
• attend a professional volleyball game/tournament
• attend an NBA game (completed in January 2014)

Joakim Noah goes for the dunk in a regular season game against the Charlotte Bobcats on January 11, 2014, the first Bulls game I attended.