- I saw on TikTok a woman asking if anyone wanted to go with her to see Beyoncé.
- Determined to make changes in my life, I said yes, and days later I was in a bus surrounded by strangers.
Imagine you're on a social media app. Let's called the app "TikTok". And as you're scrolling, you see a complete stranger talking about how they want to see one of the biggest artists in the world. Let's call this artist, "Beyoncé". However, in the video, they explain that all of their friends backed out, they don't have a ticket, but they want to see her perform, and would like to go with someone, and the show is the next day. What do you do?
Well, I don't have to imagine because it actually happened to me. As soon as I saw the post, I commented, "I'm going alone tomorrow," and although that wasn't completely true because I also didn't even have a ticket, decided to call this "manifestation" versus a "lie".
I've been needing to do more things for myself
I've been in different season in my adulthood, being over 35, having just gone through a divorce, and making a drastic relocation from living in Mexico the past three years. The last year, for me, has felt isolated and in search of community, support, genuine love, and more opportunities to experience joy. I spent the last three years overworking myself and feeling guilty whenever I've taken time alone because I'm also a mother. And now that I'm a single mother, I feel like I'm scrambling to figure out when I can do things for myself or find other people who just want the most sporadic, robust life experiences we can muster.
Then life cues up Sharon Kim, a 32-year-old personal trainer, and corporate banker, on my TikTok feed. I knew nothing about Sharon other than her post being one that I admired. She was looking for community and didn't wait around for the regular round-robin of friends she had been used to, to show up and be present. She decided to enlist a larger community, something that social media can actually do well if we let it. Her transparency of just wanting to get out for a night and experience joy was something I could resonate with. So, when she said she'd DM me on my Instagram, I allowed this story to play out as needed.
I checked all of her socials beforehand
I, of course, ran through both her Instagram and TikTok pages to make myself feel comfortable with the fact that I had thrown everything I tell my son about "Stranger Danger" out of the window. But with a TikTok tag name like "getinwerehealing," there was something about her that made me honestly believe that she and I both needed this moment.
Sharon told me that a friend of hers was taking a party bus, and they had two seats left, so she told them to save them for the two of us. My nerves got even more unsettled when I realized that not only was I about to meet up with a complete stranger to see Beyoncé without advanced tickets, but now I'd just upgraded my experience to a bus full of more strangers who I still had yet to identify. But I went with it, and when it was time to catch my Uber, I said a prayer and hoped for the best.
It was so much better than I expected
What I got was much better than any expectation that I could have set. I arrived to meet a group of folks in sequins, glitter, fishnets, and cowboy hats and knew that I had arrived — truly. I had yet to see Sharon, but the "friend" she had talked about promptly introduced themself and let me know she was en route because "Sharon tends to be a little late." It was a laughable moment that allowed some nerves to fall off like leaves on a tree.
But when it was time to board this big coach bus, there were still no signs of Sharon. I got on bravely, and confidently, but with more prayers dancing across my lips. Finally, she boarded the bus, and we screamed, laughed, and sang off-key all the way to the stadium.
After the show, I posted on my TikTok three separate parts of Sharon and my journey, or as I called it, the "Race to Renaissance." I had no clue that over a million+ views later, that this journey of Sharon and I going to see Beyoncé would be beyond two strangers going to a concert. In a time where people are living check to check, feeling major FOMO, not having a community, and just really wanting to have a few minutes of joy, our story was a connector for the world.
She gave me the courage to be brave
Our experience was honestly a rudimentary blueprint for people to get to know each other again. The pandemic kept us so closed that we now have the opportunity to open up, get out, and truly get to know our neighbors. Sharon and I are no different from any other people out there, but what we did was say to hell with waiting around for anyone that has yet to develop the capacity to choose themselves and also to hell with missing the beauty life brings us.
I'm not sure where she and my story could end up, but what I do know is that her courage allowed me to be brave and has now connected people from across the country to find joy and also hold on to community again by building genuine relationships fostered on simply doing life out loud.