How Going To A Beyoncé Concert Inspired Me To Work Harder

How Going To A Beyoncé Concert Inspired Me To Work Harder

Tuesday, June 7th, 2016 is a day that I will never forget. June 7th was one of the busiest days ever. The day began with an orientation for my internship at the Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. The orientation started at 10 am and took place on the campus of New York University. This was only my second day in New York, and I did not know how to ride the subway. Because of this,  I walked two miles early that morning from my dorm in Manhattan and arrived approximately at 8:58 am. (What the heck was I thinking? Haha) Orientation was great, I met a lot of cool people and became very excited about my internship. 

After orientation, I was told that I had to go to The Tonight Show to meet my supervisor who was another two miles away from where I was. I was exhausted, but nonetheless,  I walked two more miles to the Rockefeller Center in the heat of the afternoon. When I arrived at “30 Rock” (as we call it) I got a message from my friend, Kevin who sent me a ticket to a Formation World Tour. He bought the concert ticket a while back with the hopes of being in New York to see the show, but things did not work out as he planned. Like a good friend, he sent me the ticket with text messages that read like, 


“Get your life from Beyoncé for me.”
“You better live it up for the both of us.”
“I want to live through your experience don’t let me down.”
 

After walking over four miles in one day, going to two different orientations and still jet-lagged from my flight from Atlanta to NYC, I was literally on my last strand of energy. Lo and behold I knew I was going to see Beyoncé and have the time of my life, not just for myself but for Kevin too. 
By this time I was tired, but I wasn’t so tired that I couldn’t teach myself how to use the subway this time. So I pulled out my iPhone and GoogleMaps myself right to the Citi Field arena where the show was taking place. When I got on the train, there were hardly any seats available, and I wondered where all these people could be going. As soon as we pulled up to the Citi Field stop, everyone got off the train and was running towards the arena. 

 

At this moment, I knew all of us were on the train for the same reason I was, to see Beyoncé.


As I walked towards the stadium people were running past me, screaming as they were so excited to see the show. You could just feel the energy from all of the fans. Everyone was so hype and pumped. When I saw how everyone else was so anxious to see Beyoncé, it made me completely forget about the day that I had and how tired I was. Before I could even gather what was going on, I was in a Beyoncé Formation T-shirt in my seat enjoying the show.


The show was truly spectacular! It was my second time seeing the concert, but it was better than my first. I loved how Citi Field is a baseball stadium and has that outdoor effect, it made the show even cooler. Beyoncé got the crowd hype as she began the concert with her hit song, “Formation” when she was on that stage, performing and dancing everyone had smiles from ear-to-ear and danced along like children. It was truly a phenomenal experience. Midway through the show Beyoncé performed another song and stopped to gather herself. She took a sip of water, wiped the sweat from her brow and said, 


“If a country girl like me can do this, you can too. I’m no different from Y’all, dream big, and it could be you on this stage.” 

When Beyoncé said that I looked around at the thousands of people that filled the arena all to see one woman, one show, and experience one moment. Seeing all these people all here to see Beyoncé struck me. I thought about my journey to the concert and how much it took for me to get there. I thought about how I was just one person of the thousands that went through a lot to get to the Citi Field arena; I wondered what everyone else’s story was. How much everyone spent on their tickets, what it took for each and every one of those people in the stands to get to the concert. It was truly quite overwhelming to fathom. 

By this time Beyoncé had already moved on the next song, everyone around me was dancing and singing, but I began to reflect. I thought to myself, what could I do to captivate this many people? If Beyoncé can do it, maybe I can too. Whether I’m a public speaker, an author, TV producer or maybe even a singer. I wondered could one day I captivate thousands of people through my own work? I don’t know, but I surely want to try. I truly believe that every human being is the same, and we all have God-like talents and greatness that lives in all of us. I don’t know what it is that will truly make me GREAT but after attending that Beyoncé concert, I want to continue to find out. I have had some success: going to Morehouse, publishing a book and snagging internships but I’m not stopping there. I want to continue to work even harder, be even greater and not get complacent. If I dream big, work hard and believe in myself there is NOTHING that I can’t accomplish. 


Thanks Beyoncé for being an inspiration and reiterating a fact that I have always known. Who would have thought I would attend a Beyoncé concert and be so inspired? To everyone reading this blog post I encourage you to work hard and believe in yourself no matter what. We all have the capacity to dream big, work hard and achieve greatness, so let’s rise to the challenge and be great together. I know I’m going to try and hope that you are too.