I grew up in a very superstitious Italian family that believed in karma;, knock on wood if you say something that can be jinxed, never open an umbrella inside a building, stuff like that. So when the idea of being cursed at a ska concert by a man wearing a fedora came across, it was not too shocking to me.

I never really got ska music. There was always something about it that inspired me, however. Ska music is a punk based music genre that has orchestral instruments, its more aggressive because of the punk influence yet it brings in beauty with the orchestral influence. That friday was going to be my first big ska concert. I have seen other smaller/local ska bands play (even played on the same stage that Big D at the Kids Table used to with my band,) but this was Streetlight Manifesto, the greatest ska band of them all, they perfected the genre of ska, and this was the last stop in boston they were ever going to play, because after this tour, they were going to break up. I had never had been so ready for a concert in my life.

The night was like walking through a dream; I was against the barricade with an adorable guy (lets just call him cute guy) to my left who kept me safe from crowd surfers and my best friend right behind me. It was an intense concert, cute guy had a bunch of friends who we met, including one kid who was making eyes at my best friend all night and a kid who was wearing a fedora and vest to the ska concert. At first I thought it was cool, but I don't know, he was acting weird all through the night. Besides him, all his friends were so cool and we got to know them pretty well. At a concert, when the headlining band comes on, you do not have any space. The people around you are not around you anymore they are squished up right next to you. Luckily for me, it was cute boys friends, best friend, and best friend’s cute boy instead of some sweaty old guys (it has happened before, and it wasn't to fun, as you can imagine.)

After me and cute guy left the barricade, I ran into fedora boy, who last that id known was right behind me in the crowd. I never saw him get out, so I was a bit shocked. I just shook it off, however, and continued on. The next few days after the concert, there was a lot of misfortune in my everyday life (as well as my best friend’s) and so my reaction was to think, “what did we do to deserve this karma?” So we figured: if both of us are having really bad luck after the concert we went to together, it must be something to do with that concert. Kinda makes sense right? Well, it did to us, and the only questionable event/person of the night was fedora boy.

So, We decided that we were cursed. We believed it too, and our bad luck seemed to last forever. After a week or so, I started to find myself realizing how insane I sounded to other people, but it really did make perfect sense to me. I started to talk myself out of it because what if I just had it in my head the entire time and I was just having a little bit of bad karma? This could be all in my head, and not be real at all. Liking the idea of not actually being cursed, I was more than willing to talk myself out of it.

And that week i decided i’ll just tell myself i don’t have a curse, and it kinda worked. I started to feel less scared of the next bad thing that was going to happen. I went to a concert that week and had a very good time, of course there was not a mysterious man wearing a fedora but still it was a good sign. The real reason why I told you this story was to show you that you make your own luck. Sometimes things are just in your head. My best friend and I had a type of placebo curse, i know you might get caught up in the moment and not realize that i sound a tad bit crazy.

So with that i learned that even though you get caught up in the moment and you think that stuff like that is true sometimes things are just in your head and its more comforting for them to be there than for them to not be. I will still wear my lucky necklace and knock on wood though because it is more reassuring to me, i know i don't need to though now.