Lucky Me!

Gold Standing Tickets would have cost us P6000+ each!

Year 2013 has indeed been a lucky year for me so far. Several months ago, I won a Samsung Laptop Series 5 at WordBex Fellowship Dinner, with only P33.33 as "puhunan" for our taxi fare to the venue. I sold the laptop to buy an ipad mini and pay for my enrollment for a review class.

In addition to that, and I think this one is the most awesome one, I got to watch Linkin Park's World Tour Concert last Tuesday (August 13)...and the sweetest part was, it was for free! :)













My officemates Nicole, Christie and Angel were comforting me as we drove by the Mall of Asia Arena that Tuesday Night. I was having alligator tears having seen people piling up at the entrances. I really wanted to watch the concert even months prior, but when I finally went to purchase tickets, the General Admission was already sold out (it was the most affordable, anyway.) The next price was P3000 plus already, so I settled in the thought that maybe it's not yet meant for me to fulfill my lifelong dream, atleast for the 16-year old self in me.

As we were circling the globe at the Mall of Asia rotunda, Joan, another officemate of mine, called me on the cellphone and asked where I was, and asked if I wanted to watch the concert because he had GenAd tickets for P200 only! Of course I said, yes! So I dragged my backpack and stuff (I just got back to Manila from Zamboanga, btw) and rode a taxi to my apartment and hurriedly changed outfits.

I arrived at the venue at a little before 9 o'clock, met Joan at the entrance, and this time, he had better news. He was able to get Gold Standing tickets from an executive who gave out tickets at the office. Good thing he was still rendering over time (OT-y). So we entered the metal detector cladded entrances at the Coral Way Entrance, and the rest, as they say, was history.....

It was our first time to watch an event at the Arena. Even though I had been the Design Officer in charge of it for about a year, I only get in the Arena when there were no events. (Ironic, huh?) So when we gave our tickets to the attendant at the entrance, it felt like we was were kids going into a candy store.

We got in the Event Bowl at around 9 p.m., and about ten minutes had passed, the lights were turned off. The fans, young and old, screamed as the band members came up in the stage one by one. I could not even remember the first song they played anymore. All I remember was my 16-year old self coming back to life. As if in a trance, I screamed, I rapped along, I sang my lungs out to their more famous songs. Some songs I wasn't familiar with anymore, but who cares, I was in their concert!

Linkin Park was undoubtedly part of my high school life. I grew up listening to their songs, having donned black shirts for the heck of it, bought casette tapes (?) and plastered their faces on the walls of my room. Their music was what my generation could relate to. Finally seeing them up close, and watching Mike Shinoda and Chester Bennington perform was indeed an awesome feat.

They played for two hours straight! It was amazing! No wonder they could still go at it even after all these years, and even if they are already aged quite a bit, they definitely could still rock it out.

Even though the original plan did not push thru (i.e. the person I wanted to watch the concert with), I still went home with the biggest smile on my face...and a memory, a beautiful one, that I'll always want to go back to.

Here are some photos I took with my meager android phone :

LP Frontman Chester Bennington with his signature 'screams'

Mike Shinoda was awesome!

Drummer Rob Bourdon beating his drums like crazy! He was my favorite back in the day!

My office mate, Joan (yes, he's a guy! :P)

And that's me! By the way, that blonde girl behind me is out of this world!