Madina Seytmuradova
Staff Writer
Like most students, I planned to spend my Friday night doing something fun, but I ended up having to go to a country concert. Similar to many international students, I had no idea what country music was other than a vague notion that truck owners like it.
By the end of the event, I was looking up Lenny LaBlanc and Ford Coley’s songs on Spotify.
I walked into Claudia Crosby expecting a varied audience, but I was surprised to see that most attendees were from an older generation. Besides the photographer and myself, I spotted only three other students. I was prepared to sit through two eye-gauging, boring hours.
Right off the bat, the crowd welcomed the musicians with warm cheering, and the artists reciprocated. It felt like a reunion more than anything.
The audience and the band recognized each other: artists cracked jokes, told stories and of course sang their songs. At one point, I found myself singing along to a song called “I’d Really Love to See You Tonight,” which I’d never heard before. It was melodious and more folk than country, I think, but the lyrics struck a chord with me like a nice Ed Sheeran song.
Some of the songs were so good, I started Snapchatting the choruses to my friends and wishing they were there to hear it live. Admittedly, I didn’t like all the songs, but ultimately the playlist-worthy material outweighed the number of OK songs.
I wondered how many great events I had missed because I thought I wouldn’t be interested or because I stayed home catching up on Sherlock.
What I’m trying to say is: your college experience is only as good as you make it. I heard many students complain that there is nothing to do in Troy while our corkboards are overflowing with fliers for all kinds of events. There’s the Chinese New Year celebration, badminton club, creative writing club invitations—you name it!
Bottom line, there’s all kinds of stuff to do and no reason to not give it a try.
