There is one adjective that best describes me: nervous. I am an extremely nervous/uptight/anxious/fill-in-other-synonym-here person. I have an intense fear of the unknown; I need an immediate answer. I worry even about the most trivial things: is this ride at Disney World going to be too fast? I took two Advils instead of one; will I need to get my stomach pumped? Am I going to have to get on the highway? Don’t even get me started on scary movies.
However, after playing quite a few rounds of Mario Kart during one wild and crazy weeknight this past week, I get a text from a friend. She inquires if I would like to accompany her and another friend on a 12:30am drive to New York City to see Justin Bieber’s free concert during the Today Show. Lacking in spontaneity, I dismiss her text and comment on the ridiculousness of this idea to my suitemates.
But then I pause and read over the text again. I imagine a scenario in which I have an alter ego. Let’s call her Unpremeditated Stacey. She’s wild, crazy, and extremely adventurous. All her friends can’t believe the insane shit she has done. There’s even a rumor about her that she bungee jumped completely ass naked in New Zealand. Obviously the rumor must be true. Everyone respects Unpremeditated Stacey.
In reality, everyone expects me in bed at 11pm already having watched two episodes of Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey. Not tonight. Allie and Unpremeditated Stacey will become one: a process that took over an hour and a half of convincing. I didn’t make this spontaneous leap alone. Another suitemate, who accounts for doing 90% of the convincing (i.e. she texted my friend saying we were going without my confirmation), joined me on this journey.
Thus with zero hours of sleep, the four of us hopped into a ZipCar with the sole intention of seeing Justin Bieber perform live. For free. And it was worth it. From arriving in the city at 3:45am, securing a spot in line, splitting up to find coffee and food, getting rejected from the bathroom in 30 Rockefeller Plaza, waiting in line at McDonalds next to throw up on the floor for the bathroom, getting back in line, waiting in the cold, trying not to get lost in the stampede that ensued each time the line started moving up, to finally getting our spot in the concert only to be positioned behind the stage, it was all definitely worth it to hear him perform “Sorry” and “Love Yourself.” AND TO SEE AL ROKER THROUGH THE WINDOW REPORTING THE WEATHER! Al, low key, might have been the highlight for me.
But in all honesty, I did it for the story. I wouldn’t have gone unless my dad texted me “Do it. Live in the moment, Al.” Yes, I know I have a cool dad, but in all seriousness I needed to do something no one would expect me to do. And trust me, I shocked a lot of people. I get so caught up in the world of schoolwork and exams that I needed to decompress. Maybe going to New York in the middle of the night is a little extreme. But ignoring the fact that I ended up so overtired that I became anxious that I was going to be sick and never sleep the next day, I still have the memory of making this spontaneous decision with me forever.
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