See? Told You I'd Devote An Entire Blog To Them

       (to understand the title of this blog, see my first blog)
       Music has saved my life. Okay, maybe not really, but changed it? Completely. Just over a year ago I went to my first rock concert, which triggered a huge chain reaction. And you know the rather ironic part? It wasn't even the main band who did it. Let me set it up for you...
       The date: May 14, 2010.
       The place: Intrust Bank Arena.
       The bands playing: Sick Puppies, Breaking Benjamin, Shinedown, and Nickelback.
       Nickelback was the one we went to go see, and my thoughts about the other bands were: "Hmmm, Sick Puppies, heard of them, never heard them, should be interesting. Breaking Benjamin: same. And Shinedown's got those awesome songs Second Chance and If You Only Knew, so that'll be cool." So yeah, it wasn't what I was expecting. We missed Sick Puppies because they played early, but I wasn't too disappointed; I'd heard they sucked anyway. Breaking Benjamin had such a distracting background and attitude (the lead singer came out on stage flipping everybody off and screamed f*** every other word) that I tuned them out. And then came Shinedown. Since then, because of that concert, they have become my favorite band. Ever. No questions asked. The acoustics in the arena were so bad you couldn't understand the lyrics, but it was still AMAZING. That's how awesome they were. They didn't even have to be fully understood, they were still mind blowing. After I was so hyped up from them I wanted to buy their T-shirt immediately, but I didn't. (blame my mother's common sense). Then came Nickelback, and they were pretty awesome. It was their shirt I bought, and do I regret it? No. Do I wish I'd gotten the Shinedown one all the same? Yes. Anyway, getting off track here...
       A few days later, I bought their latest CD, The Sound of Madness. I listened to it so many times, I must have driven my mom crazy. And that was it, I was hooked. I got to know the band, became a member of their website, found their other CDs and listened to them too, and you know what that did to me? It inspired me, it gave me a dream to go after, it made me more outgoing, more willing, more ready. Shinedown hasn't been the only one though. All kinds of things inspire me every day, and to be perfectly frank, I consider the day a waste if I haven't made at least one person smile. It's my philosophy. Off track again... I can't exactly explain what happened that night at that concert, but something just... Clicked. It all kinda fell into place, and I suddenly knew that no matter what I did or where I went or who I was with, what I did had meaning, and it's meaning was to shed some light and maybe inspire someone else to be a better person, to be so much more than we are, and to become what God meant them to be. I think that's one of the meanings of life; to find the joy and inspiration in everything, and pass it on to others, so that they might do the same.