NF｜HOPE CONCERT

HAPPY NF｜HOPE CONCERT DAY!!!🙌👊🎤𝆕

I am a mix of emotions as I eagerly await my first NF concert tonight!! I'm a little nervous and a whole lot excited! This is the BIGGEST concert I will have ever attended in reference to size of venue (it's a sold out ARENA!), size of crowd and probably vOlUmE! 🔊😵 And I'm on the FLOOR!! Am I insane!? 😝 I'm bringing ear plugs*...haha, that makes me sound so old 👵🙈 It's not necessarily because of the volume of the music, it's more due to my paranoia about losing my hearing, haha 😅 For real tho. 

Not only am I going to the concert of an artist who's music truly made me feel so heard, represented and understood, but it's exactly one month to the day until my 31st birthday. 🤯😭🙌 That can't be a coincidence. It's too serendipitous. Too perfect. ✨ When I listened to HOPE for the first time all those months ago, I knew that song had the potential to change my life. It sounded like the ULTIMATE "theme song" for me! As you know, I love music I can relate to and feel. I don't think anything can top HOPE. It's what I needed, when I needed it. I haven't made as much progress as I have needed/HOPED to, but I feel like today is my second chance. My re-set. My fresh start. Because it's been thirty long years of... RUNNING, thirty years of SEARCHING, thirty years of HURTING, thirty years of PAIN. Thirty years of FEARFUL, thirty years of ANGER, thirty years of EMPTY, thirty years of SHAME. Thirty years of BROKEN, thirty years of ANGUISH, thirty years of HOPELESS...thirty years of NEVER, thirty years of MAYBE, thirty years of LATER, thirty years of FAKE. Thirty years of HOLLOW, thirty years of SORROW, thirty years of DARKNESS...thirty years of BAGGAGE, thirty years of SADNESS, thirty years of STAGNANT, thirty years of CHAINS. Thirty years of ANXIOUS, thirty years of SUFFERING, thirty years of TORMENT...thirty years of BITTER, thirty years of LONELY, thirty years of PUSHING EVERYONE AWAY!! 😭🙌👊🔥 I'm READY to start over and become the best version of myself in my 31st year. Leave everything mentioned above behind; I'm ready to be "the one in charge" and take the "REINS" of my LIFE!! 👊

UGH! I HOPE tonight is everything I have been imagining, wishing, HOPING and praying for!! 🤞🙏 I HOPE it's truly is the start of something totally new for me! That I can feel...reborn. Cleansed. Strengthened. Ready to bury my fear and pride and anger and bitterness once and for all and move forward with HOPE. 🙏

*UPDATE:* I've been home a total of 20 minutes and I already have the post-NF-concert-blues!! 😭 It was EVERYTHING!!🔥🤍🖤 Everything I could have asked for and MORE!! Every song was absolute perfection, I had the time of my life! 🙌😭😝👊 I didn't care if people thought I was weird, old, loud, obnoxious, overly excited, whatever. I lived in the moment, singing my heart out, jumping up and down, cheering the entire time!! Ugh!! HAPPY EARLY BIRTHDAY TO ME!! ✨💖🙏😭 I'M SO FREAKING HAPPY RIGHT NOW!!! It was SO WORTH IT!! So worth getting floor tickets! NOTHING compares to the energy of a live audience! 💥😝🙌🔥 Another magical, wonderful, PERFECT concert experience seeing one of my all-time FAVORITE artists!! I am SO blessed. "Thinking about how I'm so thankful...look at my life, I'm grateful."  🙏

SET-LIST｜8.11.23

1. HOPE

2. MOTTO

3. CAREFUL (with Cordae)

4. The Search

5. Leave Me Alone

6. My Stress

7. Time

8. PAID MY DUES

9. WHY

10. -Interlude-

11. Hate Myself

12. MAMA

13. HAPPY

14. Crowd Interaction (Chocolate vs. Vanilla)

15. PANDEMONIUM

16. Drum Solo

17. Let You Down (Nate performing from center stage)

18. GONE

19. RUNNING

20. When I Grow Up

21. Returns

22. CLOUDS

The whole show was one GIANT HIGHLIGHT!! But the opener and closer were straight 🔥🔥🔥 My goodness can this man put on a SHOW!!! I have to give a shout-out to the transition between stages because that was so unexpected and EPIC!! At one point Nate disappeared from the stage and gave the spotlight to his incredible drummer Rico. He had us all jamming!! As soon as his set ended I noticed a crowd gathering behind where I was standing and FREAKING NATE WAS ON THIS SMALL STAGE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE FLOOR!!! 😱 HOW DID HE GET THERE UNNOTICED!?!? So I ended up being fairly close to him and wish I had snapped more pictures when it looked like he was looking directly AT ME!! AND THEN he jumps OFF the stage and starts heading back to the main stage and people are swarming him to get selfies and high-fives!! It was chaos so I never totally saw where he was in the masses and accidentally took a picture of a kid dressed in all white, mistakenly thinking it was Nate, hahaha! 😆 But that was a MAJORLY exciting moment!! 

I also have to shout-out the closing performance of CLOUDS because HO.LY. CRAP!!! THAT WAS EPIC!! 🔥🔥 I can still feel the adrenaline!! HE STARTED RISING UP WITH ALL THESE "SMOKE ROCKETS" AND LIGHTS AS HE FINSIHED OFF THE SONG AND THEN JUST DISAPPERED AND IT ENDED!! 🔥🤯🙌 IT WAS SO DOPE!!! I was SCREAMING and SINGING ("Hollywood, Hollywood. Hope Nate doesn't go Hollywood!) my head off!! SO FREAKING AMAZING!!! 🔥😍👊😭🙌🔥

One more shout-out to When I Grow Up... the first NF song I ever heard!! 🤍 I really missed my brother in that moment, wishing he could have been there, but we'll go to an NF concert together someday!! I'm manifesting it right now!! My brother is just so sweet and good and deserves to see his favorite artist put on such an INCREDIBLE SHOW!! 🤍🤞 You gotta keep going for at least a couple more years Nate!! 

My post-concert-depression is reallll right now, haha 😅🥺😭

*Didn't use my earplugs once! I was ALL IN!! Only reason I would have needed to use them was from the highest pitched shriek's coming for a girl behind me, haha. I won't fault he too much tho...she was having a good time, just like I was! 

THANK YOU FOR AN INCREDIBLE NIGHT NF!! 🔥💥🙌

IT'S A SHOW I'LL NEVER FORGET AND WILL CARRY WITH ME FOREVER!!

I'M SO INSPIRED BY YOU!!

THANK YOU FOR GIVING US YOUR BEST EVEN THOUGH IT CAUSES YOU A LOT OF STRESS AND ANXIETY!! 🙏

YOU MAKE SO MANY PEOPLE FEEL SEEN AND LESS ALONE!

WE LOVE YOU NATE!! 🤍🖤

UNTIL NEXT TIME!!!