I sat in a passenger seat of an old rental van with five of my closest friends, who just happen to be my band mates, staring off into the distance watching the lights fly by the window one by one. The view of the surrounding landscape turned suddenly into a completely unfamiliar area as if teleported to a new world. The unknown street names and buildings took over the area around us. Everything hit me all at once so unexpectedly, like the sound of a first lighting strike in the beginning of a storm. At that moment, nothing else mattered. This is finally happening.
Andrew asked, “Do you think we will find a place to sleep every night?” Andrew was always the worried one of the bunch, but he played bass on stage he moved around like a madman. “3 weeks are a long time so probably not,” my vocalist Brandon chuckled out, “but I mean a majority of even the popular bands that go on a tour can not find a place to sleep every night so we can always just crash out in a Wal-Mart parking lot.” From my viewpoint, I could see my band member’s faces in the reflection of the rear view mirror as they all spoke about what they wanted to do at the upcoming shows; their eyes getting bigger than the cities we headed to in excitement. I still just sat there; having this profound realization in my mind while a smile slowly sprouted across my face.
Over the course of 4 years, I spent more time alone in my room, sitting in an old desk chair wrapped up in duct tape to keep it from falling apart like a science experiment gone completely wrong. My summers involved not going outside to play with all the other kids, but in that room trying to perfect my craft. I began more time playing guitar in that seat writing music than I did socializing all throughout high school. I wore the same outfits every week because every penny I managed to scrape up went towards the recording studio or towards buying new music equipment. Most birthdays or holidays, I asked for money instead of gifts to put towards any costs that the band would need to do anything. I started teaching myself graphic design and doing all of my bands promotional needs as a form to save money. For years, my music was my life. If I did not spend my day doing something to move the band forward, I spent it brainstorming about what I could do to progress the band. The idea of one day I will be able to tour around the country kept me going like the energizer bunny. I kept on working towards that goal on just being able to travel city to city playing my music. Over time, we played bigger shows and promoted all over the city in order to grow as a band. Management finally came out as a result of the labor, helping us take the next step we needed to take. After spending every single day for a month practicing and playing a significant annual music festival, management was able to have this tour set up for us.
Jesse, the drummer, asked, “Do you guys remember playing our first show with only about 70 people?” Jesse went on to ramble, “I never figured that I’d end up playing across the country by driving my parents crazy with me bashing my drum set in their garage.”
“Well bashing drums for 7 years has to have some outcome!” Trey blurted out from the back seat. He continued, “I’m just glad I didn’t spend over 4,000 dollars and most my Saturday nights at practice over the course of years so I can stay at home and sit on my couch.”
I broke my focus away from the dusty window and gave a light laugh thinking of the difference with where we started as a band. Thinking about that one first show with 70 people coming out to see us as compared to the festival we played before hand with over 1,500 people in the crowd. The effort put in from the point of that first recorded song to the CD put out just a couple months before this moment. This seed that we planted has grown more than I could have ever hoped.
I turned to face everyone else in the back seat of the van and asked, “Do you guys think we would have been able to be here without having to do everything that we did?” I could see the gears in everyone’s heads turning as they thought of the alternate places they could be in life at this moment.
Jesse got lost in his own thoughts like a kid at the mall for a couple seconds but then muttered out, “I mean it’s not likely, but if you really want to get to most certain points in life the only real way to assure it is to put in an insane amount of effort towards it.”
“I know if I didn’t end up doing everything we did I’d probably be at home playing Nintendo,” Brandon jokingly blurted out. We all chuckled along as the van kept speeding to the next town.
I felt euphoric with the understanding that everything I’ve done, all of the time and energy spent, amounted to something I was proud of like an artist finally finishing his masterpiece. At that moment, I was willing to put in as much work toward anything if it meant being able to feel like this all of the time in every aspect of my life. Every missed party was completely worth it. There’s a unique feeling that comes from being able to prove the people that doubted your dreams that only comes from accomplishment. It is a feeling that puts someone in a position where they are invincible, and nothing can touch them or knock them down off their throne. All of my heroes that are now touring the world all started at this point, and now I’m here. This was the road I’ve been trying to get a membership to for most of my life with everything I’ve done. I did not think anyone could be any happier than I was sitting in that old, dusty van. Every little thing we did as a band was for this exact moment. This is it.