The Day Everything Changed (19.02.2014)

If you’ve been following Happy As Hell for a minute, you already know that Twenty One Pilots is woven into the DNA of this brand. But I don’t think I’ve ever sat down and told you the full story of how two guys from Ohio actually gave me my entire world.

Let’s go back to February 19th, 2014.

I showed up at the venue at 3pm, and honestly, it was such a different world for the clique back then. There were only five other people in the queue—no massive camping lines or crazy crowds, just a tiny circle of us. It’s wild to think about now, but if you googled their lyrics back then, you had to scroll for pages before anything even showed up. They were our little secret.

I recognized a couple of people from our tiny Twitter circle, but then I saw him. This tall, handsome guy—honestly the only guy there—6ft, brown eyes, brown hair. I remember thinking, okay, I definitely need to get his attention. I had actually just bumped into Josh Dun outside a Nando’s (casual, I know), so I tried to use that story to act cool and get him to look my way... but it totally failed. To this day, he doesn’t even remember me being there!

Flash forward to just before the Blurryface era. The band was doing these tiny, intimate shows, and by then I’d actually found this guy (Ashley) in our small circle of fans online. We’d exchanged a few passing tweets, so I spent the whole gig scanning the crowd for him. I couldn't find him anywhere and the show was incredible, but I figured I’d missed my chance.

Then, that same night, the universe stepped in. He popped up as a "People You May Know" suggestion on Facebook. I took the leap, added him, and sent that first message. We haven't stopped talking since.

Since that first "hello," our life has been one big full-circle moment.

We got married on 10/10/2020 in a tiny COVID ceremony with just two witnesses, and then on 21/10/2022, we welcomed our "best fren" Marigold—our literal House of Gold.

I owe so much to this band. It’s not just about my family; it’s about the whole community of friends we’ve watched grow and flourish since those early days. It’s so amazing to look back and see how we’ve all—along with Tyler and Josh—grown up together.

We’ve gotten through the hard times that felt impossible, and even though life still throws new challenges our way, we keep pushing through... because we have to.

Stay Alive.

Rebby 🖤

To see some old photos - check out the about me section HERE!

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/d75a0b_91a50358d3044dad80d02fa30f069d96/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

Tyler's Nod To My Sign!