Saturday, March 23, 2019.

Our bodies were finally adjusting to the warmth of our house after running into the ocean for some spontaneous Saturday afternoon adventure (a story for another time), when we started to get ready for the evenings event.

When it was announced that Scott Helman would be playing a concert at our small town university, my roommates and I couldn’t hold in our excitement. It was all we had talked about for weeks and finally, the day of the concert was here!

If you know me, then you know that I am a firm believer in seeking discomfort- a mantra originally made by Yes Theory, a group of friends (YouTubers) who believe that in life there are boundaries that form our comfort zone, and that the best experiences in life come from when we cross those boundaries. On the eve of March 23 2019, my roommates and I did exactly that. An idea popped into our heads- “what if we got Scott Helman to pre with us or come to our house after for an after party?” You could legitimately see the light bulbs over our heads beaming and the fire in our eyes starting.

It all started with a sign. A dinky, quickly typed sign that I made on my computer. It was just enough to get the message out, without it being annoying or over the top.
It read…

I folded the sign and stuffed it in my pocket until we were at the venue. Now, obviously we had doubts. What originally seemed like a fun hypothetical dream quickly turned into a plan. We posted on our social media photos of us with the sign in an attempt to draw people in and get their support- and it worked! Messages from friends and students came flooding in. Everyone was very eager to see if we could pull this off- and so were we.

We were some of the first people at the venue so that we could be closest to the stage (and because we were huge fans and we wanted the best views). We patiently waited for the opening acts and for the chance to get their attention with the sign.

The first opening act got a good kick out of our sign, but nothing really came of it. The second opening act, Ralph, was not only extremely energetic and talented, but also unbelievably kind and chill. She put on an amazing performance that the crowd loved, and when she read our sign, she seemed honestly interested in the idea! Which made us beyond excited, because it gave us hope that we might actually make this thing happen!

Finally, it was time for Scott Helman to perform, and the energy in the crowd was indescribable. Everyone was eagerly waiting, no one more than us. The timing had to be just right, but the little voice in the back of our heads telling us that it was impossible was getting quieter and quieter with each second.

When he came on stage the crowd erupted and the real magic began.

I’ve been to a lot of concerts, they’re my favourite place to be, but I’ve never experienced a concert like that night. The venue was small enough that you could feel him connecting with every single person. The crowd fed off his energy and sang at the top of their lungs! Everyone that was there was full of positive vibes and for the pure love of music. Not only that, but Scott’s stage presence was contagious. I’ve been to concerts where the artist has been on tour for weeks and months and you can tell that they don’t care or aren’t in it, but that was definitely not the case for Scott- him and his band played their hearts out. They kept the crowd entertained and engaged and genuinely had FUN! Which made all of us have fun! It was one of the best concerts I’d ever been to, and that was before all of the craziness started.

Around the middle of the concert, we decided to take out the sign again. We held it up and he saw it right away (being right at the front definitely helped), you could see him and his band mates smiling right as they saw it, which made my friends and I go wild!

When he came back for his encore, we knew we had to hold it up one last time. This time, not only did he see it, but when I handed it to him he took it and held it up for the crowd, then hilariously danced on stage with it in his mouth!

I was in seventh heaven and my roommates were on cloud 9.

After the concert, we saw Ralph and her band and stopped to ask them if they wanted to come. She said that they wanted to, but that they had to wait to help with take down, so they would have to see. But we had a really pure and genuine conversation with her, she was so easy to talk to and get along with. At that point, we left the venue knowing that if nothing came of the night, at least we had just seen a freaking amazing performance by crazy talented artists and we had had a great conversation with an honestly beautiful person, and for us, that was enough.

But, we were still determined, so we raced home to set up for a party that we never thought we might actually have to throw. We cleaned our kitchen faster than we ever had before (which is saying something), Morgan (my roommate) was DJ and had the music playing right away, I set up the beer pong table and we all waited and hoped that people would arrive.

Slowly but surely, people started to linger up the driveway. We had the MOST RANDOM group of people in our house- some friends and some strangers, but everyone was there for the same reason and everyone was open to having a great night!

Around 1:40am, my roommates and I were feeling discouraged, we didn’t know if anything would happen so we decided to give it until 2:30am and if no one showed by then, we would have to shut the party down. But by luck would have it my roommate Bridget got the text that made everyone nearly shit themselves.

Her friend on the soccer team, conveniently was talking to the guitarist, who had texted her asking about her plans for the night. She said she was thinking of going to the “after party” (I say it like that because, let’s be real, it wasn’t anything glamorous, we threw a house party in our kitchen haha) and he replied, “you should come, We are all going!”

Holy fuck. Scott Helman is coming to our house.

When we saw the band (Scott, Callum and Dylan) walking up our driveway we all were beyond pumped and ready to have the time of our lives! I opened the door to let them in and right away you could tell how ready they were to just have a fun night! We gave them a warm east coast welcome by playing The Night that Paddy Murphy Died by the Great Big Sea, which definitely shocked them but also showed them that we were fun people who were ready to party!

Our house challenged the band to flip cup (we won!! - important detail), Scott and I played beer pong, which is not his strong suit, but as he pointed out, he never went to university- I gave him a pass ;) We all danced and sang to whatever tune Morgan threw on and honestly just vibed with everyone and embraced the experience.

Before they arrived, we had a moment of panic about the atmosphere of the party- there aren’t enough people, what if they hate the music, they won’t have fun…. But you could tell that they were just happy to be invited and to have the chance to be ‘university students’ and just have fun at a house party!

By around 3am, Dylan and Callum had left and we got some pictures with Scott and the girls of 102 Church St. to commemorate the crazy night! Then we all hung out in my room, me, Scott, my roommates and my friend Mia, and had a really cute heart to heart, intimate moment. We had started the night out as complete strangers- an artist | and fans. But in my room, after a fun night, it felt like friendship. He was super funny and easy going and just a great guy to be around and I think he really liked hanging out with all of us! He was super appreciative and open minded, which kinda brought us all together.

Around 4am, I gave him a ride back to his hotel with my two roommates to make sure he got back safely, in our little confusing town. When we dropped him off we were sad to see him go and he was truly sad to leave! He thanked us one last time for showing him a fun time and we wished him luck with the rest of his tour. We went our separate ways as friends, hopeful that our paths would cross again soon.

I’m not going to lie, when we got home, there was A LOT of screaming and dancing and hugging and laughter! We couldn’t believe that this was our life!

Now after all of the craziness and excitement and the reliving and retelling of how we managed to throw an after party for Scott Helman, came the truth of the matter.

The reason that this entire night was possible was because we believed it was possible and because of all of the people that took chances. At one point during the party, at the peak of all of the wildness, I took a step back to take it all in and realized that all of this came together because of people taking chances on each other and by people being open to pushing the boundaries of their comfort zones. We took a chance making that sign- there was a VERY likely possibility that nothing would have happened that night, but Scott took a chance on us. Him and his friends decided to come to our random house in the middle of Antigonowhere at the chance to have a fun time with COMPLETE strangers!? And in the end, we had the most amazing experience, that we will cherish for the rest of our lives. Best of all, we became friends with a crazy cool and genuinely kind human.

March 23, 2019 was the craziest, best, most unreal day of my life (so far). It all started with a thought, an ambition and an 8x11 inch basic sign. Some of our most unforgettable moments happen when we just say YES. They’re the simplest three letters, but they can make the biggest impact on the people who are determined enough to use them.