Garth Brooks: childhood dream fulfilled

Over the weekend, I lost my voice, strained nearly every muscle in my body, and overall felt exhausted, like I had been hit by a large dump truck filled with one ton of snow.
But it was my own fault as I stayed out much too late Thursday night in Minneapolis, fulfilling my ’90s childhood dream and seeing GARTH.
Yes, I was one of the very lucky thousands who got tickets to see Garth Brooks live in concert at the Target Center, and Thursday afternoon, my friends, Brittany and Jason, and I, headed east to see our country idol.
I’m not a huge fan of country music, but anything generated in the 1990s is in my music library. Martina McBride, Brooks and Dunn, Alabama, Deana Carter, George Strait, and especially Garth.
’90s country is what I grew up with and on Thursday night during Garth’s concert, it was as if I spent three hours of my life down memory lane, riding the school bus with Dad, singing along with Mom in the car, and dancing with my brothers in the living room to “Standing Outside the Fire.”
My parents loved Garth. They owned all of his albums, which were always in rotation in our five-disc CD player at home. While he worked in his shop, my Dad would sing “Papa Loved Mama” or “Two of a Kind, Workin’ on a Full House.”
 And I can still hear his voice wafting down the hallway as he sang his rendition of “The Dance” in the shower.
I remember when Mom and Dad went to see Trisha Yearwood and Garth in concert in 1998. Mom’s hair was as big as Trisha’s and Dad wore his suede black cowboy hat and black button up shirt. He looked exactly like Garth and ever since, I’ve associated Garth with my Dad.
On our way to Garth’s opening concert Thursday, I told my friend Brittany Garth was like a dad to me, and she said, “I’m pretty sure if Garth was your dad, we’d have front row tickets.”
Nonetheless, our tickets in Section 230 paid off. We were in the second row of the section, and lucky for us, the first row in front of us decided to sit for the entire show, so we could see the speck that was Garth run around the stage and rev up the crowd.
Brittany and I danced and loudly (obnoxiously) sang along to every one of Garth’s songs. It was like I was a kid again, screaming, “Woo Garth!” and dancing to “Rodeo” and “That Summer.”
We swayed to “Unanswered Prayers” and “The River,” and lost our voices screaming and cheering like little girls.
I was in heaven, and countless times looked over at Brittany in disbelief and said, “OH MY GOSH IT’S GARTH.”
At the end of the show, after singing “Friends in Low Places” and “The Dance,” Garth looked around the Target Center and thanked the 18,000 fans in attendance.
He turned behind the stage and said “Thank you” to the group of people under the lights. He pointed to the fans on the side dancing throughout the show and thanked them for their love.
Then he turned in our direction and said, “And to the two girls in Section 230 who have not stopped dancing this entire show. I see you! Thank you!”
I gasped and quickly scanned the crowd around me to make sure he wasn’t talking about somebody else.
I looked to my right and saw a family seated next to us and behind me, I spotted a big group of guys and girls standing and looking back at Brittany and me.
Wide-eyed, I looked over at Brittany in disbelief that Garth pointed us out and I nearly fell over. It was so, so, so exciting, and I just kept shouting and singing and cheering and dancing.
It was amazing and though my vocal chords feel as if they have been shredded and my knees haven’t quite recovered from jumping up and down, it was an incredible moment that I’ll never forget.