Ashley from Church

I had one of the best nights of my life tonight, and I don’t want to go to sleep until I write this down.

I do not want to forget about this. I never want to forget about this.

I want to remember this moment forever.

As I’ve done in the past, I’m going to start this story with the ending. Because as my favorite author says in my favorite book: “It might seem strange to start a story with an ending. But all endings are also beginnings. You just don’t know it at the time.”

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I go to a lot of concerts alone. Specifically, I go to a lot of Eric Church concerts alone.

When I tell EC fans this, as I did tonight, I was met with so much love and respect that I really wasn’t expecting it.

Tonight was just one big pile of love.

This blog post is going to be about one specific moment. It was probably one of the most beautiful moments in my life.

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When you ask Eric Church fans how and when they became a fan, you get pretty much the same version of the story.

They found his music during a really tough time in their life. One woman tonight told me that her friend was dying, and someone handed her The Outsiders album.

It changed her life.

I have a moment that changed my life forever. As I’ve written about here before, the song that got me hooked on Eric Church’s music was the song Record Year.

I was in a relationship that ended back when Mr. Misunderstood came out. When I figured out that Record Year was a break up song, my life changed forever.

That song saved my life.

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I met the most amazing people at the concert tonight. I have no idea how long I’m going to stay up tonight, because I want to write this all down so I never, ever forget it. 

I had a ticket for the Soul pit. For those of you who don’t speak Eric Church, he plays in the round and there are two pits on either side of the stage. 

I was in the Soul pit. Most of my buddies from waiting in line outside were in the Heart pit, and I was a little sad that I wasn’t going to be near them.

Dude, I finally made friends at a concert, and they all went away. What the hell.

When I did finally get to the stage floor and picked my spot, none of my buddies were anywhere near me. The ones who were near(ish) to me in line hollered my name from across the stage before the show, and that was also one of the coolest things I’ve ever experienced. 

I met the most incredible group of people I’ve ever met.

The girl beside me, Ashley, told me that their concert friend group started when one person took another person who wasn’t a fan to the show. Pretty soon the third person took a person, and so on, and it grew into this wonderfully large group of friends that go to all the Denver concerts together.

Ashley and I talked a lot. During the song Record Year, I thought about not telling her this. I could have kept my mouth shut.

We talked the entire night how this whole concert thing turned into one big family. We look out for each other. We love each other.

We’re a family. 

You don’t find that at a lot of concerts or with a lot of performers. This is something special that we all share with each other. 

I nudged Ashley in the arm and whispered into her ear during the song Record Year: “This song saved my life.”

Ashley took my hand, and for the entire song, we sang Record Year together. I squeezed her hand as tight as I could and she rubbed my hand with her fingers.

Everyone has a song that either changed their life or saved their life. And for a few minutes in Denver, when all I really wanted was my friends, my family or a significant other beside me, I had a friend so caring that we held hands and swayed together. 

I wish my words could capture the magic of the moment. There is no way they can. In that moment, my world stopped and I took a minute to feel all of the feels that I could. 

Ashley put her number in my phone as “Ashley from Church,” hence the title of this post.

Ashley from Church, that was one of the best moments of my life. At one point, towards the end of the show, she nudged me. 

She said: “I am so glad I met you.”

Me too, Ashley from Church. Me too.