Friday, August 25, 9 a.m. A crucial moment for me and my group of friends. We had been eagerly awaiting the release of Lana Del Rey’s upcoming tour tickets, and we could hardly believe we had a chance to see her live. One of my friends’ moms had taken on the responsibility of securing the tickets for us, and we were all anxiously waiting for her to come through.
As I stepped into my advisory class, I noticed my friend whose mom was in charge of the much-awaited tickets sitting at our usual table with a blank expression. As soon as we made eye contact, I saw her facial expression change. “Freddy,” she said reluctantly as I put my stuff down. I knew what was coming, but I needed to hear her say it before I could accept defeat. “Emma, no…” I replied. She looked up at me and said, “She couldn’t get the tickets.” My heart shattered. Lana Del Rey has been my favorite artist for as long as I can remember. That’s when I realized accepting defeat was not an option. I had to think of another way to get my hands on those tickets.
My first thought was to see the situation for myself, so I opened my computer and quickly went to Ticketmaster. There were 2,000 people ahead of me in the queue. I could feel my heart beating faster and faster. The number was going down rapidly, was I going to get these tickets? This was it, 50 people ahead of me. I cracked my knuckles and prepared for a showdown. Suddenly, the screen refreshed.
I was in. Immediately, I saw that there were four, $45 lawn tickets still available. “Emma, oh my god.” I clicked them and pressed the “check out” button, but as soon as I got my hopes up, they were gone. “Another fan beat you to the tickets”, the worst words to ever appear on my computer screen.
Quickly, I opened another tab and went to SeatGeek. As soon as I got in, I saw how high the ticket prices were. “Over $300 for a lawn seat!?” I said to Emma, displeased. I couldn’t believe my eyes. But that’s when Emma reminded me, “Freddy, we said we would do anything for these tickets.” She was right, I would give anything to see her. I added the $300 lawn seats to my cart and pressed check out. I was going to see Lana Del Rey.