A Night we were never Able to Re-Create

I don’t remember a lot of days that feel like this one. I remember it as a clear cut. Before it lies the past, after it, a new era.

A band from Germany, Grossstadgeflüster, was coming to town to play a gig and I was super excited. On Facebook, I saw that a couple of people I studied with were also going to attend. I haven’t been in contact with them since we graduated a couple of years ago. I was going to be there with my boyfriend at the time and didn’t expect anything more than a good show.

When we arrived my ex-boyfriend couldn’t handle the volume and wanted to stay further in the back. I was glad that I knew some people there who stood in the front and were ready to party their asses off. Of course, I didn’t leave my ex behind for all of the show but I had to properly celebrate tracks like this one…

After the show, my ex went home but I kinda wasn’t ready yet. So weren’t the others. We were lucky because it was the very last time (!) my favorite club was open before it was shut down permanently and I went on complaining about how things aren’t as they used to be.

Before we went there, we went home to a friend to get a little drunk(er). I met all her roommates and many of her friends. All in all, I’ve met more people who I still regularly hang out with on this day than in all of my years at university combined.

Most importantly, I got to reconnect with Jacqueline who I consider one of my best (if not the best) friends I have. She also made a couple of illustrations for this blog. For no particular reason, we weren’t really close when we were studying to become designers, but after this day, we were. Probably because we met a lot of new people together on this fateful day. Jacqui, thanks for hanging out with me and not thinking I’m a dork (or thinking it and still hanging out with me).

Illustration by Jacqueline Kaulfersch

The day also started a very bad but fun tradition of us daring each other to fulfill ridiculous tasks (‘If I were you, I would…’). A couple of rounds in, one of my friends had to sing an improvised song with a musician who was playing a show at the club we attended and she excelled at it.

After this day nothing was as it used to be although at first it seemed as if nothing had changed. The change was going to happen over the next couple of months. I got to know many people who I now consider my close friends, I started confronting my OCD and, even if it sounds random, I kinda began to like myself more.

Sometimes I ask myself what would have been if I hadn’t gone out that day or if things would’ve been different if my ex would have tagged along. Honestly, I don’t want to know the answers. I am happy that everything happened the way it did. Even if this sounds silly, I wanna thank the universe, or whoever is responsible, for this perfect night that changed EVERYTHING.

BenLeander