How I made my dad, who very much disliked Harry Styles, happily listen to his songs. To give some backstory to the situation, I am a huge Harry Styles fan like stay up till midnight the night before my Biology A-level to listen to his album in full and have read all his favorite books. Two and a half years ago after my mother told him repeatedly that he would not get tickets my dad got tickets to see Harryween in MSG (New York being one of my favorite places in the world it seemed like fate), then covid happened and it got postponed.
Covid hit and I really really didn’t want to live anymore there would be days when I would wake up and just feel numb to the world, not sad or angry just numb, feeling like everything I was doing was wrong and I needed to change myself. So, when life became all too much for 16-year-old me to manage I made a deal with myself that after I saw Harry Styles play Fine Line in Madison Square Gardens for Harryween I could do whatever I wanted (and felt like I needed) to do. The thing was that Fine Line as a song told me everything I wanted to hear, it gave me reassurance that everything was going to be okay, someone actively telling me that we’ll be alright in a world where everything felt the opposite.
I often say Fine Line is the song that saved my life and I think people often look over the impact of my words, a song by an artist that I have loved since I was five years old who I have never met did more for me than every other person in my life, it could truly drag me out of the pits of hell if needed. The truth is that every night I would sit on the windowsill in my room and listen to Fine Line, sitting there telling myself that if I suffer through all the stuff going on in my life, I will be able to hear it live. Then the borders to America were closed meaning I couldn’t go to the concert at all. If you think post-concert depression is bad this is heartbreaking. In my entire life I have never cried as much as I did that night.
Me crying every day and every night for a solid two months about Harry Styles made him a tense topic within my household, leading to him only being referred to as the one who shan’t be named like he was a real-life Voldemort. Then he released tickets for his UK tour and let me tell you the fear of not getting them tickets was very real and very big, but I managed to get tickets to his first show in Glasgow.
Asking my dad to come see a man that he could not stand left him very confused, leading him to ask me every day why? And the truth is that after seeing me at my lowest and always supporting me throughout it all, I wanted to share my source of happiness with him. I was very aware that in that stadium I was going to be the happiest version of myself to ever exist, also making me the most vulnerable version. In all honesty I wouldn't just ask anyone to go to this concert with me, only the most special people in the world.