Concerts create such a unique opportunity to experience the music you shamelessly belt out in the shower, and if you have ever gotten to see your favorite artist live in concert I think you'll understand the stages I'm about to describe.

1. Anticipation

You've waited many moons for this artist to post upcoming tour dates. Scroll scroll scroll through their Instagram posts. Refresh refresh refresh the tour website and finally– BOOYAH (is it still cool to say booyah?) They're coming to a city near you. You can do this. You can actually see them– in the flesh. You can breathe the same air that they breathe as they make the beautiful music that reminds you that you have a soul, and after this semester you'll take any reminders you can get. To prevent any more delay with dramatic behavior, you eagerly type away in search of the best tickets you can afford. Click click click through the tour website pages until finally "Purchase Tickets" flickers across the screen, igniting the fire in your eyes. It's show time– well not yet, that's actually in a couple of weeks, but this is exciting. This is happening.

2. Preparation

The concert is this week and all of your friends are getting pretty tired of you posting updates counting down until the day you are going to be closer in proximity to your favorite artist than ever before. Maybe some of them are going with you and revel in this excitement as well, which only fuels you more. You have to take a step back, though. You have to prepare yourself for every possible outcome that could arise at this concert. When do you leave for the venue? How do you get as close as possible, if it's General Admission? What if they look at you in the middle of the show? What if you pass out? What if they call you on stage and they ask you to marry them in the middle of your favorite song? Okay, yeah, that's a little far-fetched– I mean you'll drink plenty of water there's no way you'll pass out. But you have to prepare, mentally and emotionally...and financially. What if you want a tour shirt? You want to commemorate this event, but not too much, i.e. you want to actually watch the show with your own two eyes and not through your iPhone as you Snapchat the whole concert. Maybe a few pictures though. And a snap. Or five. At any rate you have to be prepared to save your battery. You can do this. This is exciting. This is happening.

3. Disbelief

It's the day of the concert and unless the people around you are talking about it, you are in your own little fog. Is this really happening? It's going to be amazing. You get ready in your bathroom, picking out the best outfit ( should the whole marriage proposal thing go down ) and, of course, you're playing that artist's latest album in the background. Wow, you think, this is almost like a movie with a soundtrack, except now the soundtrack is going to be live and you'll be experiencing it instead of just listening to it, singing along into a hairbrush. No shame though, all the best artists start out with the hair product sound system, trust me I did my research. When you pull up to the venue you almost don't want to get out of the car because you think you're about to wake up from a dream. That dream would really suck if it ended right there though, I mean it could have at least waited for the opening act. The fog doesn't last for long and you can pinch yourself all you want; this is real. This is exciting. This is happening.

4. Shock

You're inside and you are so. close. You don't want to move. One, because you don't think you have the capacity to transmit messages from your brain to your muscles and two, you don't want to lose this spot. After what seems like an eternity, the opening act walks on stage. They're really good. They're amazing. You're totally buying their EP after the show. So amazing. Okay they're great, how many more songs do they have left? No, you can't think like that, it's rude. This is their show too and OH MY GOSH THEY JUST SAID THIS IS THE LAST ONE THEY HAVE FOR US TONIGHT WE'RE SO CLOSE. Wow, they were really good, I wish they played another. Oh no, the lights dimmed. This is exciting. This is happe– they're on the stage. You're favorite artist is on the stage. Right in front of you. You can't breathe. You grab your friend's arm and squeeze way too tight. Is your mouth wide open right now? Are you drooling? Everyone is screaming. Why aren't you screaming? Did you forget how to scream? Oh no, are you paralyzed, why can't you scream maybe something is really wrong with yo– nope there you go. Loud scream. Good one. They're right in front of you and you don't even want to blink because then you've lost a millisecond of your time with them that you could be watching. You feel overwhelmed, but this is incredible. This is exciting. This is happening.

5. Joy

You've never been this happy in your life. You don't even care how embarrassing your body is being, bopping along to the music or swaying to the slow songs, because you are so happy. They're playing your favorite song – and it's not one of their hits, it's that track that no one really listens to and despite the fact that you knew they were going to play it because you looked up their recent setlists online, you still feel like you could cry right now. Tears of joy, though. This is exciting. This is happening.

6. Numbness

It's their last song. And not the last song before they do the whole leave the stage and wait for the uproar to bring them back for an encore (ooh, rhyme), but their very last song for the night. You can't believe it. It's ending. You're still caught up in the high energy you've been buzzing with the entire night, just staring at them, but you know what's coming soon. You don't want to acknowledge it so you just become numb, absorbing what you can that's left in this magical evening. This is exciting. This is still happening.

7. The Feels

The post-concert blues. The numbness wears off like Novocain and soon you have to acknowledge that you're going home and you're favorite artist is probably on a tour bus right now on their way to an entirely different city. You just want to put on the shirt you bought, crawl into bed, and not talk to anyone because you're afraid it would ruin every sensation you just experienced at that concert. Remember when the artist did that? And everyone reacted like that? And their outfit. You could see the sweat on their face. They had a conversation with you, well, the crowd, but still it was real. It was exciting. It really happened. Your heart is heavy, and you don't know what to do. Wait, of course you do– you open up your social media apps to share your experience and you start posting and tagging. Post post post. Tag tag tag.