As an avid concert goer, I’ve met a lot of musicians. You probably haven’t heard of most of them, but I’m confident you’ll know this one. On September 8th 2014, I met Ed Sheeran. Not only is he one of the most talented humans, but he’s also one of the nicest.

The whole experience came about because I replied to a tweet on Twitter. A local radio host had tweeted that he had some extra tickets for Ed’s concert at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia later that week. He then began to randomly pick people who had said they wanted them and give them a pair of tickets. I was one of the winners. What I didn’t know is that once you won a pair of tickets to the show, you were automatically entered into another contest for a chance to meet Ed. I didn’t really think anything of it, because I figured there was no way I’d get that lucky again. To my surprise, a few days later I received a voice mail from an unknown number telling me I was going to meet Ed Sheeran.

The day of the show, I was extremely excited. Not only was I going to see one of my favorite musicians perform live, but I was going to meet him too. It was very overwhelming and was basically all I could think about.

When it comes to meeting musicians, or generally anyone that I idolize, I spend tons of time planning out what I’m going to say, and then I get in front of them and I immediately become mute. To my dismay, Ed was no exception. I was with my sister and a bunch of other people who had also won meet-and-greets. We basically just went into an open room and Ed was standing in the center. One by one, we approached him and had the opportunity to talk to him for a few minutes. If I wasn’t super awkward, this would’ve been a lot less nerve racking. I had told him I had seen him once before with Taylor Swift to which he replied; “Well this time it’ll be longer and hopefully better.”

Ed then told me to “enjoy the show.” I managed to squeak out “I will” which prompted him to say “you don’t know that, it could be shit!” Keep in mind he said all of this in a British accent so that only added to my stress. After talking for a little bit, I hugged him and we took a few pictures together. I don’t remember a lot of our conversation but I do remember he was super nice. He really made me feel like he was genuinely grateful for his fans. He didn’t rush conversations or limit anyone to a single picture as is quite common when it comes to the meet-and-greet setting. Ed took time to ask each of us our names and thanked us for coming to the show. Of course, I immediately took to Twitter to post my pictures and make all of my friends super jealous.

Luckily, the show wasn’t shit. It was just as amazing as I knew it would be.