As life only gets more hectic with each passing year, I find myself craving balance and, quite frankly, doing whatever it takes to achieve it. So as soon as my friend Georgia and I heard about one of our new favorite bands, Imagine Dragons, playing a concert in Toronto, we immediately bought tickets with the “we’ll make everything else work around it” mentality. We hopped into CC (my new car, named after my favorite New York Yankee’s pitcher) on Wednesday afternoon and made our way across the border without getting lost (surprising if you know me).

If nothing else, we both saw this as an opportunity to catch up, get out of town and see what we were hoping to be a good show. I got so much more out of it than that.

After smiling and batting my eyes all the way up to the third row (perks of being little), we found ourselves completely enthralled by the show that Imagine Dragons put on. Aside from killer vocals that never faltered and an engagement with an intimate crowd I haven’t seen in quite some time, I was most impressed by how humble and appreciate the band was, frontman Dan Reynolds in particular. He had an energy about him that made me feel outside of myself. I remember looking around and actually thinking, “This is what life’s about. Not sitting at a desk all day. But enjoying moments like this. Making time for moments like this.” It made me realize how badly I want certain things out of life.

I want that satisfaction of doing something I love and enjoying every second of it. It’s how I felt about cheerleading before circumstances called an end to my biggest passion. I want to be on the brink of tears when something I do resonates with someone else. I want to realize that my “work” impacts the life of someone and brings them joy. And I want that feeling of satisfaction to be consistent, I can’t settle for it being a one-time kind of deal.

I’m a young woman who wants a lot out of life and is on a muddled path of figuring out what exactly those things are and how I’m going to earn them for myself. All I know right now is that balancing my life with things I have to do and things I truly want to do has proven to give me the most happiness. I’m on the right path, and I’ll keep taking one step at a time until I put all of the pieces into place.

Check out the video of Imagine Dragons performing “It’s Time” to get a glimpse of what I witnessed earlier this week.