When my roommate, Liv, and I found out that Harry Styles was going to be performing on the Today Show in New York we thought it would be really fun to go, but we didn’t think much of it for the next week. When we realized it was getting closer we discussed the idea and decided to be spontaneous and go. We figured out it was on a Wednesday, February 26th, meaning we would have to miss classes that day. We looked at our schedules to make sure we weren’t missing any tests and unfortunately Liv had a midterm that day. We were both so dissapointed but she encouraged me to still go. I had never been to New York so I didn’t want to go alone and then I remembered my friend Mariah loves Harry. We had become friends in our English class last semester so I thought it was worth a shot to ask her. Luckily, she said yes and we started planning out our trip. We were going to leave Tuesday afternoon on a bus to New York, then stay in a hotel for a couple hours then get in line in the middle of the night.
On Tuesday we boarded the bus at one in the afternoon and made our six hour journey to New York. I learned a lot about my friend Mariah. Once we made it, we walked to our hotel and made our way to the room. After being able to lay down for a bit we went to McDonalds for dinner because it was so close to the hotel. After bringing the food back to the hotel and devouring it, we went to sleep at ten so we could wake up at three in the morning to get in line. After what felt like twenty minutes our alarms went off waking us up. I shot out of bed and got ready in about ten minutes then we made our way to the line. Luckily the line was just one block from our hotel but it went all the way around the street and five blocks back. People had beds and pillows since they had been camping out since Sunday. Once Mariah and I got to the end of the line we sat down and waited until we would be let in at five. A couple hours later everyone started running. People were cutting and running as fast as they could so I started sprinting not wanting to lose our place in line. It took about an hour for us to get to the barricades because everyone was packed together and the line would stop then everyone would start running, it was insane but I didn’t expect anything less from Harry Styles fans. Once we got into the barricades we made some friends that were actually from Massachusetts.
About an hour later we were interrupted by the sounds of screams and we realized Harry was coming out for soundcheck. I was right next to the side barricade so I sat up on it so I could see him. He sang “Lights Up” first and I was happily singing along surrounded by thousands of happy fans. Next he sang “Adore You” and then “Watermelon Sugar”. Finally he sang “Kiwi” and headed off stage to get ready for the show. After about an hour of waiting they announced Harry was going to be coming on so everyone went crazy. He came out in a pink blazer and started singing “Lights Up” while everyone sang along and was having a great time. After that he went inside to do an interview. A while later he made his way back out and started singing “Adore You” then “Watermelon Sugar”. Finally he sang “Kiwi” and we thought it was over. Fortunately enough he surprised everyone by singing one last song, “What Makes You Beautiful.” People were jumping, screaming, and just jamming along, living in the moment. It felt so surreal because I hadn’t seen Harry in two years and he is my favorite artist of all time. I had my phone put away and I was just taking everything in. I had traveled to New York for the first time ever to see this performance and this song is so nostalgic. That moment felt like it lasted forever when in reality it was about three minutes long.
After the show had ended we sadly made our way back to our hotel room and plopped straight onto the bed. We chilled out and talked about the amazing experience we just had. Finally we decided to get breakfast because we were starving so we packed all of our bags and checked out of the hotel. We headed to breakfast and finally ate some food. Since it was only twelve and our bus wasn’t until 2:30 we decided to go to Times Square because I wanted to see some sights. We hung out there for a while and took some pictures and then started to head to the bus station.
Overall, I had an amazing time. I really enjoyed doing something so spontaneous because I never do things like that. This trip has definitely made me want to do more things like this in the future. I recommend that you should do something spontaneous because it really paid off and I will remember this trip for the rest of my life.