Juice Jam was my first concert ever

My name is Cheyenne Darcy Amaya and I transferred  SU this Fall. I’m a junior majoring in Communication and Rhetorical Studies. I transferred from a small school in Vermont, because it was too small for me (there were only 450 students). I wanted to be somewhere that I didn’t know every single student, at Syracuse I can say “hi” to one new person a day and still not know everyone by the end of the year and I love that.

Before Juice Jam I’d never been to a concert, because my mom was always scared of those scenes of people just going crazy at them. It’s weird though, because being from Westchester County, New York  I’m only 30 minutes from Madison Square Garden so it’s weird that I’d never been to one before. It was always one of those things on my bucket list to do during the summer, but I never came around to it. This year at Juice Jam I finally got the chance to experience what it’s like to go to a concert.

Juice Jam brought me and my friends closer than ever, (literally) because we were all on top of each other! We bonded together from dancing so close to one another, to singing the lyrics so loud, to jumping up in the air with our hands up, and to sticking together even when the crowd tried to separate us.

All the performers: Tove Lo, Marshmello,  D.R.A.M., Stephen, and LOLO brought a lot of good music to Syracuse and they kept the crowd going. I never felt more in the moment then I did this Sunday at Juice Jam alongside my new friends. Not a worry in the world crossed my mind as I moved in the crowd of people swaying my arms to the music of Tove Lo.

The atmosphere that comes with being a Syracuse University student is incredible. People bleed orange even when they’re not wearing the colors. I cannot count how many times I bumped into people during Juice Jam and how each of them would turn to me and say “It’s okay, were all family here.”

There was no hate, just all love.

Events like Juice Jam make you realize that living in the moment with your friends is what makes it all worth it (even when Fetty doesn’t show up). Who doesn’t need some shoulders to lean on when they announce that the headliner isn’t going to arrive “due to unforeseen travel delays.” I don’t know how Fetty got stuck on a plane in sunny weather, but….we’ll never know.

If anything, Juice Jam was full of happy people until the end. There were smiles and hands up everywhere. I wish that I was back at Juice Jam–but this time without Fetty–because, c’mon, Marshmello killed it out there!

From my perspective, Juice Jam was still great– once you add up all the positives and subtract Fetty.

I had an amazing time at Juice Jam and I am glad that I was able to be with my new friends at SU. I met friends here at Syracuse that I was looking for my whole life the kind of friends that are always there no matter what. The type of friends who look for me to grab dinner, the friends who applaud me in my success, and the friends that are there when I need a shoulder to lean on. Juice Jam was just more a reminder that Syracuse is my place – it is my home.