Last night I saw To Write Love On Her Arms(TWLOHA) and it was AMAZING!!

[hotrodjess]

so last night TWLOHA came to FSU and i went. i think it was life-changing for me i really do.its really gunna be hard to put it into words just how amazing it was.
the doors were supposed to open at 8:30pm so i got there around 8:15pm. there was only a few people waiting. the closer it got to 8:30pm the more people showed up. i was parked back against the railing/wall just observing and ended up listening in to this girl’s conversation. she was talking about giving a speech in her speech class on TWOLHA and my mind imediately jumped back to the conversation i had with my friend racheal about how this girl in her speech class gave a speech on TWOLHA. thinking that this girl must be the same one i kept listening. well her friend left to go do something and so this girl comes up to me and says hi my name is elizabeth and i noticed that you were listening in and thought i’d come over and introduce myself.i tell her my name and we get to talking about music and TWOLHA and Postsecret. Her friend comes back and some more introductions go on(elizabeth’s friend’s name is kim) and we talk more. then about 8:45pm one of the people that was on the event staff came out and told us to get in a straight line because the band had gotten there and they would open the door in about 10 min.elizabeth, kim and i shuffle towards the door and end up pretty close to the front of the line. while in line we meet this girl in front of us whose name is brittany. the 4 of us talk some more about music until they open the doors. we all decide to sit together and we go right to the front. we talk some more until the show starts and elizabeth and i make a trip to the merch booth and i get a purple shirt that says LOVE and then below it it says To Write Love On Her Arms.

the show starts on time. renee was supposed to speak but she is sick so we get jamie instead. he flew in from austin, texas cuz TWLOHA is there at SXSW. he comes out and does the funniest intro of a band ive ever seen. Band Marino was good. the lead singer joked with jamie the whole time. they are very folkish sounding when acoustic and not that much different when none acoustic. i couldnt stop smiling because the guy that played the drums, keys, trumpet, trambone, the tamborine and the recorder looked like he could have been joey westwood’s(from red jumpsuit) little brother.

when they were done it took them about 5 min. to get all the equipment off the stage. it was about 10pm by now and a video played of the special that NBC Nightly News had done about TWLOHA. after that jamie came up. boy he is attractive.(its the blue eyes again). he was wearing a purple and white striped long sleeved shirt, jeans and a green beanie. anyways he starts going into how TWLOHA came about. i learned that after jamie wrote the story about renee that they decided to sell t-shirts to help pay for her treatment and he posted the story and how to get the t-shirts on myspace. then he was out on tour with switchfoot when the first box of TWLOHA shirts showed up and jon foreman the lead singer put one on and said you could find more about it on the internet and then it blue up from there

after that jamie starting talking about how the purpose of TWLOHA is to show people that hope is real and tell people its ok to get help with there addiction, depression, etc. then he brought up his friend michelle who is a counselor. she talked about the stigma of our culture makes us not want to talk about our problems. then jamie talked about how we as humans are made to have relationships with people and that we need to talk with other people about our problems. he talked about community a lot and how TWLOHA has kinda made this community and united so many people and let them know that they are not alone in their struggles. jamie has such a gift with words. when he was speaking you hung on his every word and just when it seemed that the conversation was getting heavy he would crack a joke. it was just like comic relief in movies.
when he was done he opened it up for questions/comments
the only question i really remember that really stuck with me was something along the lines of “you talk about God a lot. when you talk to people do you point towards faith as a way to find hope?”

jamie’s answer to this was awesome. he said something along the lines of “im a christian, but i dont like all the things that that word has become associated with. the church and christians so many times believe that a converstaion has to end with someone wanting to accept christ” i dont try to force faith on people because that will push them away”

it was about midnight by the time it was over. brittany and i talked for like 10 min about our lives and our struggles and sucesses. then when got in line to meet jamie. i let her go first. when she was done he asked me my name, told me he had a sister named jessica. shook my hand and took a long look at my tattoo and thought it was so cool. then i handed him the trustie silver sharpie and turned around and told him to sign it and he asked who all had signed it and i told him and then waited and waited while he signed it. then elizabeth came up and offered to take a picture of me and jamie and he had to ask my name again so i told him and hes like thats right im sorry its been a long day and i have a flight at 5:30am to go back to austin.

after that i went with elizabeth to the food court cuz it was breakfast for a buck night so i didnt get back until 1am.

the first thing i did when i got back was get out of my chair and see what took him sooo long to write. he wrote

“Hope is real. Your story is important.-jamie TWLOHA” it made me just melt when i saw that.

jamie is more amazing then you’ll ever know unless you get to meet him too.