Learning Experience #1

On October 4^th-6^th I attended Austin City Limits, a music festival that is annually held in Zilker Park in Austin, Texas.  Austin City Limits or ACL for short, is not a typical musical festival.  It is held in the middle of a city, which is extremely unusual for a music festival of its size.  Everyday, around 75,000 people attend the shows being performed in Zilker Park. Other comparable festivals that draw in similarly large crowds such as Coachella and Bonaroo are typically held in much more remote locations.  At these festivals, attendees camp out for the entire weekend that the shows are going on.  Austin City Limits is also an extremely family oriented music festival.  The concertgoers range from children to elderly folks.  I first heard of ACL when I started attending Texas Christian University.  Ever since I found out what Austin City Limits was I have wanted to attend it.  I was finally able to do so this month.

 A few of my friends and I road tripped down to Austin after we got out of class on Friday.  The entire way we listened to the bands that were going to be performing at Austin City Limits.  Needless to say, we were all extremely excited to arrive.  Hearing all the music that we would be listening to that weekend only hyped us up more.  Personally, I had been looking forward to ACL for months.  I was also in dire need of a break from school.  I had been absurdly busy in the previous two weeks.  The numerous tests, assignments, and projects were starting to get to me. 

When we finally arrived in Austin, we headed straight to the festival.  The weather was perfect and the atmosphere was great.  Everywhere I looked, I saw different kinds of people.  There were teenagers looking to party to the music, kids running around having fun, and adults relaxing in lawn chairs.  Throughout the course of the festival we saw bands such as MUSE, Queens of the Stone Age, Arctic Monkeys, Vampire Weekend, Kings of Leon, Passion Pit, Grouplove, Phoenix, Wilco, Lionel Richie and others.  My friends and I saw almost every band that we had wanted to see coming into the festival.  We had quite the time finally seeing all the shows we had been looking forward to seeing for months.  All my expectations were fulfilled.

When Austin City Limits was over on Sunday night, we made the drive back to Fort Worth from Austin.  During the car ride back, I realized how great the break from school and everything else going on around me was.  At TCU, it easy to get caught up in school and everything else that comes along with it.  Like other students, I have a demanding schedule.  I learned that every once in awhile, it is good to break away and take a break from my usual life so to speak.  Before Austin City Limits, I had been in a little bit of a rut.  School was the only thing I had time to focus on and I was not exactly enjoying it.  As I have already learned, college goes quick and it is important to experience as many things as possible while it lasts. 

In the future, I am definitely going to try to go out and do more unique, spontaneous things.  It is all too easy to get caught up in the TCU “bubble” and go through the same routine day after day.  I got to hear all the great music I wanted to at ACL, but the experience also carried a lot more weight.  It taught me to go out and experience more of what the world has to offer.  Without a doubt, I am going to take more breaks from my usual life to experience new things.