This past Thursday, October 20, I had the privledge of going to Taylor Swift's concert in San Diego. It was not just the mere fact that I got to go see my favorite performer live (again) but rather, the way in which it happened and the outcome.
Taylor Swift was playing at the San Diego Sports Arena on Thursday evening, which is like a four minute drive away from my campus. I legitimately can see the venue from my campus. It was a frustrating idea knowing that my celebritiy idol was that close and I was not going. One of Shannons roommates, Makena, likes Taylor Swift as much as I do, so we impulsively decided that ticketless, we would drive to the venue and see if we could somehow weasel our way in.
We originally wanted to scalp tickets, but figured that we would be easy targets to sketchy old men trying to sell us fake tickets. A radio station there was raffling off tickets for fifth row tickets, so we sneakily got a total of five tickets and waited an hour and a half for them to tell us who won. Not shockingly, we did not win the tickets. So we were left ticketless and hopeless again.
We got back in the car and started to leave, but decided to go see her tour bus. At this point, it was 7:30- the show was well underway. While we were walking around, we noticed that people were in line for the box office despite the fact that it is a sold out show. We ventured over and learned that there were a few tickets left. The ticket vendor had two way up high for $73 or he had four on the floor for $83. We decided to take a minute to decide, and essentially talked ourselves out of it, being that we had already both seen her on this tour before. We each called our moms, expecting them to add to our decision of not going, but they both out-of-characterly told us not to miss the oppurtunity. We raced back to the box office-we got the last two tickets he even had.
Completely ecstatic, we raced back to the car to move it to the proper concert parking, and continued to run right to our seats. We were on the floor, in the aisle, right in front of the little boxed in area where they keep musical equipment and VIP people sit.
The thing I love about Taylor Swift concerts, is that I feel like I am completely in my element. It is just like I am back in my room at home, jumping around spastically to her music...but I am out in public. And it is perfectly normal. And even if it isn't, I do not really care. It makes me feel a little more me, if that makes any sense.
Being that Makena and I had already seen this exact same show in LA, we knew the order of the songs and what not. About half way through the show, Taylor walks through the aisle in order to get to this revolving magical looking tree that is in the back of the venue, in order for the people in the back to have a better view for a little while. While Taylor was in the middle of singing Speak now, Makena and I raced into the back where the entrace to geting onto the tree was. She walked through the sides and all of sudden THERE SHE WAS. Taylor Swift herself. Legitimately a foot away from me. The one girl that was to the side of me was able to have a picture signed by her really quick, and then she proceeded to get on the tree to sing her slower songs. The tree rotated, as I mentioned earlier, and when she was facing us, she was no more than 10 feet away from us if that. This sounds extremely creepy, but she was so close to us to the point that I could see the bruises on her knee. Like that is how close.
She started singing You Belong With Me, and I was recording it on my phone, and in the middle of the song, she got up to walk back to the stage. This time, she walked directly in front of me, as I was smushed up against the bar. I reached out, and I touched (possibly grabbed? I don't know/don't want to admit if I did...) her wrist. She hugged a few of the girls that were within the blocked off area, and at this point I realized that my video was still going, so I quickly put it back to Taylor, and she is just right there. I was awe struck.
Walking back to our seats, Makena and I were just shocked. I think I hyperventalated for like 20 seconds just repeatedly saying OMG (apparently it was the word of the night for me...It was all over that video I talked about earlier). Makena and I decided to rush to the front of the stage area. I got kicked back, but I was just like in the middle of the middle aisle, standing there by myself. I think she looked at me, and maybe even smiled, but that could just be my imagination. Shortly, I went back to my seat and watched from there. The rest of the show was flawless, of course, and I continued to jump around to the songs, despite the fact that they were not really "jump around to" songs. Those ones are almost even more fun to jump around to... For her last song, Taylor sings Love Story, and flies around the venue in a balcony. When she did, the balcony was five feet above us, if that. As she is doing that, confetti starts to fly everywhere. When I saw this show the first time, the confetti did not even touch us, whereas at this one, the confetti blower was right behind us. I swear it was the coolest thing ever. For two minutes straight, the confetti was just falling down on us. I was jumping and spinning around in it and I felt like I was in a music video! It was glorious. There was so much of it that Makena and I started to pick it up in piles off the ground and throw it above ourselves. That simple little act was just so enjoyable.
When the show ended, Makena and I filled our purses with confetti (which it still currently is...) as momentos of the experience. Then I decided to do one more throw-the-confetti-in-the-air-and-play-around-in-it sequence, because really, when would I get an oppurunity like this again? I jumped into the air, and proceeded to kick a guy in the crotch with the really thick heel of my cowboy boot...opps. Makena and I relived the concert as we walked out, watching the videos and looking at the pictures we had just experienced first-hand.
I know that this experience is so so dorky. I love Taylor's songs...just like the rest of the teenage-ish population. I think that they are honest and genuine, and that is such a rare trait in music these days. Her songs make me feel optimistic; like the whole fairlytale future that I want could potentially come true. But more than her music, I value her as a person and who she seems to be. Something that really hit home with me was that she once made a comment: "It's never been about trying to look well-behaved. It's just how I am. I guess it's a weird thing to be 19 and not ever have been drunk,but for me, it just feels normal because I don't really know any other way. That doesn't mean when I'm older I won't have a glass of wine. I just don't think it's such a strange thing for me not to be wasted all the time,"
As a 19 year old college sophmore, I am surrounded by the conception that everyone drinks and that it is the cool thing to do, whereas I really do not see the point in it. I do not think these people are bad or awful, I just simply have not felt the need for myself to drink. My friends and peers place such an emphasis on drinking and getting wasted and having these suuuuuper funny stories of things they do not remember. While I find it all hysterical, I just do not get it a lot of the time. My friends here try to pressure me to drink...I even have had begging a few times from them. They think it is so exciting that I am a 19 year old college sophmore and have never been drunk. Hell, sometimes I wish I enjoyed drinking just to shut them up and not be such a werido in their eyes.
Upon reading this quote, I could not help but smile a little. Here is someone with a situation quite similar to mine. Knowing that I am not the only one like this made me feel a lot less alone. There are times I get pretty down on myself because of my lack of normal college behavior, but knowing that someone as famous and wonderful as Taylor Swift has feelings like I do, makes me feel normal. By Taylor being who she is, it helps to make me a little more ok with being. So Taylor, thank you for writing inspirational and real music. Thank you for being an excellent role model. But most of all, Thank you for being you.
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