Your favorite band is playing and you have one choice to make: general admission (GA) or seats. Hey, I know most of you out there would just about jump at the opportunity for the GA pit instead of the seats. I did that, too – and it became the worst experience of my life. Here’s why. After standing in line for 15 hours in the drizzling rain and having over 100 teenagers trying to cut me and my friends in line, I finally made it inside of the Toyota Oakdale Theater to see Lana Del Rey on May 8^th, 2014.

After all of that, I entered the venue only to be stuck in the second row, behind two girls who had to be an average height of around 5’5. I, on the other hand, stand at 4’11, and was wearing Converses with no lift whatsoever. As the night went on, I was pushed forward, forcing my face into the girls’ backs. My hair was pulled, so all I saw was the ceiling. Not only that, but I didn’t get to even catch a glimpse of Lana till the eighth song of her 13-song set list!

When retelling this story to other students, many were in shock that I had been to three other GA concerts and never had an experience like this; apparently, it’s pretty common. As a short person, I want to tell you firsthand: those seats are better! True, you don’t get to be four feet away from the artist and be able to maybe touch their hand or hug them, but if you don’t get front row or happen to be shorter than the person in front of you, you won’t win – and it will never change.

Check out the attached video of the crowd from the concert to see what I’m talking about!