I went to my first concert (ever!) in February of 2007 when Josh was on his Awake tour. I live close to Chicago, and the concert was taking place at the United Center. Currently, I attended a Baptist college in Wisconsin, and pretty much everything is against the rules there, so I had to secretly drive home and then go to the concert because I could have gotten into some serious trouble if anyone at school found out about it.

My mom had joined the FOJG club a few months earlier in order to score some decent seats at the concert. It was the first concert she had been to in a long time, and it was also my sister's first concert she had ever been to! We ended up having row 6 seats, which were fairly decent (at least in comparison to many!), although the really, really good seats were the chairs on the stadium floor facing the stage.

After the opening singer, Josh Groban rose from underneath the stage floor singing "You Are Loved." It was an awesome opening! I thoroughly enjoyed the concert, taking pictures from my then-crappy camera and then-crappy-camera-phone. I was fully prepared to enjoy myself! I had purchased the women's pink t-shirt with his face on the side of it, just for the concert.

When he started singing "In Her Eyes," I couldn't find him on the stage. I mean, I could see only a "small Josh Groban" from my view, but I couldn't find him anywhere! And then out of nowhere (like many people have told in their concert stories, I'm sure!), he starts walking down an aisle in the audience - MY AISLE!?! Only problem was that there were about 11-12 people between me and the aisle. Once I started seeing other girls shyly stepping out on the steps, hoping for an opportunity to hold his hand, I knew I had to. This was a big opportunity for me! I had been a fan of his for 6 years, and I loved all three of his albums! So I stepped on probably everyone of those 11 or 12 people's feet and stopped in the aisle. He got right up to me, held my hand, and sang while he was looking at me.

Definitely a big, incredible moment in my life! But then I realized that this wouldn't be documented if I didn't take a picture. I felt terrible about getting a flash right in his face (and I'm sure his bodyguard wouldn't appreciate it either!), but I grabbed my camera and started snapping. Unfortunately due to the slow reaction time, I got only two pictures of Josh upclose: one of the back of him, the other of him leaning back and belting. Either way, I was fully satisfied :) I made my way back to my seat and had to sit down. I was overcome with a strange mix of emotions, mainly shock. I guess I just feel so much like a normal, average person, that getting to meet one of my idols close-up like that was unbelievable! What I would do to get to see him that closely again, and have more than 30 seconds to hold his hand and hear his voice right there.

The rest of the concert was, of course, AMAZING! He had at LEAST 2 encores, the last of which he wore a Bulls jersey and sang "You Raise Me Up."

On the way back, I called up several friends and told them I got to hold his hand and hear him sing right in front of me.

It was an incredible and unforgettable night :)