A perfect day. That’s the only way to describe Wednesday, October 29, 1997. Absolutely perfect.

I spent the day in Minneapolis. The sun was shining, the sky was blue and the car I had borrowed was functioning properly (a welcome change from my own car.)

My three closest friends from high school and I had abandoned our classes and traveled from as far away as Michigan to meet in the Cities.

We gathered in Minneapolis for the climax of a nearly four-year obsession — we were finally seeing U2 in concert at the Metrodome.

Since our sophomore year in high school when our U2 obsession began, we’ve waited to see Bono, the Edge, Adam and Larry in concert. We seethed with envy when other people we knew related their U2 concert stories, and we hoped against hope that the band would release just one more album so we could see them, too.

U2 finally announced tour plans last February, and I spent over an hour dealing with irritating TicketMaster employees while finally obtaining fifth-row tickets for the Minneapolis show.

Since that fateful night, my friends and I planned and anticipated. Then, a month ago, the countdown to the concert started, with daily email installments about the show.

Finally, the day arrived. We all managed to find our ways into Minneapolis. The wait was finally over. We had an afternoon to kill before the concert, and that was it.

A free afternoon with three old friends in a cool city right before the concert event of my life.

What could be better?

During the afternoon, we ate at a little cafe, shopped in vintage stores and visited other friends at colleges in the Cities. During all of this, we had the chance to catch up on our lives and reminisce about our pasts.

Then, the concert.

It was incredible. The band was tight, the sound was great in the dome and the crowd was really into the show. U2 played most of the songs off their new album, “POP,” along with tons of their old ones.

My friends and I sang along in delight and loved the whole concert. Afterward, we hugged each other and basked in the thrill of seeing the band together.

However, as wonderful as the show was, the real joy of the day wasn’t the concert.

The best part of my incredible day was spending time with those friends — talking and hanging out just like old times.

I grew up with these girls. We shared almost everything: secrets, crushes, make-up. I grew to know them better than I knew myself. There was nothing I couldn’t share with them.

But then came college. After tearful good-byes and promises to be friends until the end of time, we all went our separate ways. We emailed and talked on the phone from time to time, but we all had new friends — new people to laugh and cry with.

But, things like a U2 obsession are hard to relate to people who don’t know the history behind it. I can’t explain why “The Joshua Tree” changed my life to most of my college friends.

It’s those girls who were there with me and felt the same way I did who really understand.

While at college, it’s hard to reconcile my two different groups of friends. They have nothing in common with each other, except for knowing me, but they’re all extremely important to who I am.

Before the concert, I was afraid I would no longer have anything in common with this group of women who had once known me so well.

But, the moment we were cruising down the Minneapolis freeway together, talking non-stop, everything came together. It was as if no time had passed at all.

We’ve all changed. We have different priorities and different focuses in our lives.

But, we’ll always be the same four giggling teenage girls who desperately needed each others’ friendship.

Good company, a great concert, heavy reminiscing — what a great day.

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Sara Ziegler is a sophomore in journalism from Sioux Falls, South Dakota.