If I had to sum up how to quickly change my mood in one word, I would simply say music.

Music has been a part of everything I have experienced through college and specific tracks usually remind me of certain points throughout the last four years. I have a pretty wide taste in music, so those tracks come from a wide variety of artists. They range anywhere from Garth Brooks and Tim McGraw to Fall Out Boy, and even some Guns N’ Roses and Metallica.

One artist that has stayed pretty consistent throughout college is Jack’s Mannequin. I started listening to them in high school and instantly fell in love.

The mood I’m in plays a big role in what I listen to. Whenever I’m stressed, nervous or just in a weird mood overall, Jack’s Mannequin is usually my go-to band to pull myself out of the funk.  Freshman move-in day was one of those funky days that I relied heavily on music.

That Sunday morning, I remember waking up to do my last-minute packing – which was pretty close to all of my packing since I have a tendency to procrastinate absolutely everything – and flipping through my iPod trying to decide what I wanted to listen to. I had so many emotions flooding my brain that I didn’t know whether I was nervous, excited or frightened to the point of tears. Nothing coming up on shuffle seemed to fit my mood at all.

It was when I was in my car driving to campus with everything crammed into the backseat that Jack’s Mannequin’s “Dark Blue” came on. I instantly knew that it was the song I had been trying to find for the last four hours and listened to it on repeat for the remainder of the 45-minute drive from my house to Gannon

From that moment on, Jack’s Mannequin became part of my daily life. If they weren’t on my morning playlist for my walk to class, they were playing later that night as I was doing homework. I had every lyric to every song memorized and could identify songs within the first three seconds. It was borderline infatuation.

As the years progressed, my music preferences changed. I still listened to them pretty frequently, but not on such an obsessed level.

Then, this past Wednesday, I received some news that left me shaking for at least a half hour: Gannon’s Activities Programming Board was bringing not only Jack’s Mannequin, but the Fray and Andy Grammer. I couldn’t have been more excited.

The best part is that tickets are discounted for GU students. This is literally a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and it was all made possible thanks to Gannon’s Activities Programming Board. It’s one of the things that remind me every day why I love Gannon so much.

For more on The Fray and Jack’s Mannequin concert, check out beg4music.com.