One thing is hammered into your head in the field of medicine: stay with your patient. It was the one thing I could not do in this moment. I was initially scorned for bumping into people left-and-right trying to make my way to the front of the crowd until bystanders realized I was not an unruly fan, but part of the medical team in an emergency. Parting the crowd one person at a time was not fast enough. I watched helplessly as my patient was lifted over the crowd and surfed to the front. I looked behind me to find another way out of the crowd but realized I would have to keep pushing forward. Turning back was not an option; my unconscious patient needed me. A man that towered over me saw everything. While I was saying “medical, excuse me,” his voice boomed, “heads up!” I too was lifted, and by the hands of strangers put seconds behind my patient. A wheelchair was waiting for him at the front and when I passed over the barricade, he was strapped in ready for me to run. Behind the set to a medical tent was our destination. I was amazed at how fast we got there, not by my running speed, but from the grace of others transporting us. Although the circumstances were not expected, for many reasons this is my favorite metal concert experience. It was my first time crowd surfing, my first time truly needing help beyond my scope in a crowded area and watching humanity come together for a greater good, and my first music festival. I am grateful to not only be able to be apart of the medical team at Louder than Life, the largest rock and metal festival in North America, but also attend it in my time off. Louisville is the biggest city I have ever lived in and I am grateful it has come with the opportunity to pursue not only my professional dreams of becoming a physician, but also my therapeutic outlet of metal music. I come a low socioeconomic status family in the small rural countryside of Illinois. My parents worked multiple jobs to try and keep us afloat and my dad’s medical bills paid before he ultimately passed from lung cancer. Many fun things of childhood were out of the question for me by default of financial concern. This is why I take pride in being where I am today: a medical student despite all odds. Because really, financial concern has not gone away. I am taking out loans as I go through school, happy to get to and through school at all as a first-generation student in my family and the first to go into the medical field as anything other than a patient. Metal has gotten me through a lot of highs and lows: from finishing my first marathon running to rhythms of Slayer and Avenge Sevenfold to quite literally screaming and dancing some feelings out to Korn. I have now had the privilege of seeing all three of these bands in person either while working or right after a shift, giving a whole new meaning to how I experience their songs. That favorite concert experience of crowd surfing to catch up with my patient? That was in the middle of Slayer’s set. How incredibly memorable that was to reminisce my marathon race day while working to save a life. In the future, you can certainly find me at Louder than Life again working with your EMTs, techs, and physicians or post shift enjoying the festival myself. I have a few more years of medical school and I am working towards becoming an emergency medicine physician so I can continue to help pick up patients when their body fails them in situations like this. Maybe one day I will be able to be the doctor on site of the festival, still helping people at their lowest get back to what they enjoy the most.