Baby, Let Me Be Your Vacation.

I’ll never forget the first time I heard you, Mac. I was walking between classes my freshman year when my friend Chris stopped me and said “yo you gotta check out this white kid. Go look up koolaide and frozen pizza”, and sure enough I did. I was instantly hooked. K.I.D.S became my new favorite. Then you dropped Blue Slide Park, and that album quickly become my pump up album, listening to it on bus and car rides to games, I loved wilding out to ‘My Team’ and ‘Up All Night’. ‘Diamonds and Gold’ made me feel like I would some day leave high school and be this desired, independent woman. ‘Missed Calls’ helped me get through boys not liking me back. ‘Blue Slide Park’ and ‘Frick Park Market’ were instant classics. Then, finally, I got to see you in concert. It was your Space Migration tour. I remember BEGGING my parents to get me tickets, they finally agreed to it being my only graduation present, not like I would even want anything else. That night was one of the most magical concerts I’ve ever experienced. I got to see Vince & Chance, who at the time I had no clue of but did plenty of research when I got home from the concert. The Internet, who I was so excited to finally see live, almost as excited as I was to see you. And I’ll never forget how turnt up Action Bronson was, walking out with a bottle of apple cider. You finally came on and gave the show of a life time. Your energy was ridiculous, which I would learn is a usual at a Mac Miller show, and the venue was so intimate, I felt you were rapping and singing to me personally. My most vivid memory from that show was you sitting down at a keyboard and playing youforia. It was such a beautiful moment, one that I will cherish for the rest of my life. After that first concert, I wanted to take full advantage of seeing you live. I remember getting tickets to see you on Jimmy Kimmel. I was able to convince a few of my friends to leave school early and mob to LA, just we could see you. That was such an awesome night. We were front row and you came into the crowd, right in front of us, playing your guitar. I was so hyped because I touched your shoulder. We stood out after the show for about a hour, hoping we’d catch you again and take some pics. It didn’t happen, but I still will always be thankful for the memory of that night. I would continue to go on to seeing you at Flog Gnaw a couple times, hearing you sing R.O.S still lingers in my mind. Flash forward to 2016, the Devine Femine drops and I completely lose my shit. It was the most beautiful and thoughtful album I had heard from you, in my own personal opinion. Once you announced the tour, I had to find a way to go. I was waiting and waiting for people to say they would be willing to tag along, but no one ever did. Then I finally decided, fuck it, I’ll go alone. I wanted to see you perform this album so badly, that I didn’t even need to have anyone with me. I’m glad your music gave me the boost to go to a concert solo, because now I have yet to miss a single artist out of fear of being alone. That night was so amazing. Hearing you sing Cinderella, Dang!, The Weekend, made me feel so lucky. My next journey seeing you was at Coachella, I remember being so heartbroken because you and Banks were conflicting sets, but I told myself that I was just going to run from one stage to the other. I remember walking to the Sahara tent, then suddenly hearing “Dolla Sign” and being on a full sprint to get to the stage. I couldn’t miss seeing you do ‘Cinderella’, especially at Coachella. I’m screaming out the intro while dodging people in the crowd, then I finally reach a point where I can see you. As usual, the energy was wild. Hearing you do songs I had never heard you do before was so exciting to me! Mosh pits everywhere during ‘Insomniac’, I was scared but loving the energy. The next and final time I would see you live was at Camp Flog Gnaw. We stayed for half your set, and kicked it in the back just dancing while you were killing on stage.