My Journey to Try to Meet Tay
So, I put together this thread on Twitter not long before my first Rep Tour date (Columbus, OH 7.7.18) and it got quite a bit of attention in the Swiftie fandom (as of right now, I believe the original thread is up to 113 retweets and 242 likes, which is A LOT for little old me). I am trying to get @taylorswift & @taylornation to see it, and maybeâŚjust maybeâŚ.this story can finally get its happy ending before I am finished with my rep tour dates. I figured in order to increase my chances of getting it seen, Iâd write it all out here on tumblr as well, and maybe some of you very sweet fellow swifties will reblog, tag Tay, etc. Iâd truly appreciate it. My next show is Atlanta Night 2, and then I will be in Nashville as well.Â
Here we go, an overview of all of the times I have gone out hoping to meet @taylorswift:Â
1) 2007 - Country Concert Festival Fort Loramie, OH - I was 15 years old, and Taylor was the earliest act of the day and only had like a 30 minute set. I begged my parents to let me go with my boyfriend at the time just to see her play. There were only like 3 people in the crowd who knew her songs! Iâd been following her Myspace (LOL) so I knew already that she loved interacting with her fans, and I waited by her tour bus opposite side of a gate for over an hour before a security guard eventually told me that she was not going to be coming over, that I was pathetic for waiting so long, and that I need to leave. I started crying, and my boyfriend made us go.Â
2) 2008 - Country Concert Festival Fort Loramie, OH - Taylor got invited back! A slightly later slot, but it was on Sunday which a lot of people donât stick around for (the festival actually has since cut the day entirely). My high school bestie and I were there though with a poster baring Tayâs lyrics and screaming every word to the songs she played. I donât have photos of our posters because some drunk girl stepped on it after we had accidentally dropped it and ended up ripping it pretty bad. We waited by the buses after her set for quite awhile before we were eventually told by security that she had to catch a flight to NY or something and wouldnât be coming out.
3) 2009 - Defying Gravity Tour - Taylor was opening for Keith Urban and a group of my friends and I got tickets to just to see her! I got to meet Mama Swift for the first time, but didnât meet Tay. I wasnât really surprised because there were so many of us in our group, and this was before her headlining days so we didnât even really know if thereâd be a chance or not.
4) 2009 - CMT Awards Nashville, TN - I bought tickets when it was announced that Taylor would be performing, and drove to Nashville from Ohio (with my older sisters accompanying me because I was only 17 haha). I got to meet a lot of celebrities actually outside of the venue beforehand, but not Taylor, and my phone also died before the show so I didnât get any photos.Â
5) 2009 - Fearless Tour Columbus, OH - Nothing crazy happened this day, really, but it marked the beginning of Natalie and myâs ongoing Taylor concert bond! Taylor also came this close to us during âHey Stephenâ and touched my hand as she was walking back to the stage!Â
6) 2009 - Fearless Tour Indianapolis, IN - A random guy-friend of mine ended up with an extra floor ticket to the show and invited me so of course I said yes! I saw Mama Swift again, and she actually remembered me and âall my jean skirt, cowboy hat friendsâ from Cincinnati (the keith urban show!) â I was shocked, and she is so sweet that she upgraded us from our back-of-floor seats to the pit!Â
7) 2010 - Fearless Tour Cincinnati, OH - My friend and I arrived to the venue at like 10 A.M. the day of the show, and we brought a scrapbook we had made for Taylor. It ended up raining and still we stood outside (trying to protect our book lol) for nearly five hours across from the tour buses/loading area. Eventually someone from Tayâs team came out and gave us pit passes and took the book promising to get it to Taylor. I still have no idea if she ever saw it.Â
8) 2013 - The 13 Hour Meet & Greet Nashville, TN - This is the hardest day to talk about of them allâŚWe came from Ohio and walked around the event ALL DAY (totaled about 10 hours) trying to be picked by Taylorâs team members and we watched fans meet Taylor all day from this close to us. We never were picked, and eventually we left/gave up once they announced the last meet & greet wristbands had been handed out. It was honestly heartbreaking because this event had our hopes up so high, but Taylor is truly an angel for meeting SO many people that day, and I donât fault her at all. Plus, we did get to enjoy a free acoustic set!!Â
9) 2011 - CMA Fest Nashville, TN - At an event this big, we truly didnât expect to meet Taylor, but we still had an incredible time supporting her as a CLOSING act of the festival!!Â
10) 2011 - Speak Now Tour Indianapolis, IN - We had SOOO many glowsticks haha but it worked somewhat! Taylorâs team came up to us in our literal nosebleed seats and gave us pit passes! It was an amazing experience, but we still didnât get to meet Taylor.Â
11) 2011 - Speak Now Tour Cleveland, OH - This concert was the VERY NEXT NIGHT from the previous entry in this story! Two out of three of us (Natalie and I of course) made a back-to-back trip from Indianapolis to our hometown (2 hours each way) and then to Cleveland immediately (4 hours each way) to see Taylor again in our same get-up from the night before. We had floor seats this time, and there were these two precious little girls in front of us who kept standing on the chairs in order to see and getting scolded by security. It was breaking my heart that them (or their parents who kept trying to hold them but they were heavy as like seven year olds) couldnât truly enjoy the concert. Since we knew what the setlist would do, we told the family about Taylorâs âb-stageâ songs sheâd sing later closer to us. I saw Andrea and told her what was going on, and she said I looked familiar haha I gave her a brief overview of shows Iâd been to and when weâd met and she said, âso of course, youâve met Taylorâ or something along those lines and I truthfully said âno I havenât.â She had me go get the family and brought all of us into the sound-stage/b-stage private area for Taylorâs set there and for the rest of the show. The family was so excited and when Taylor came down from the stage, she hugged those little girls on her way out to the crowd and when she was hugging these other girls in front of us, she extended her arm to half-hug us at the same time. I CRIED A LOT.
12) 2013 - Red Tour Columbus, OH - At this point, we tried to up our costume game lol we went for the â22âł music video look. We were pretty happy with it! We didnât get noticed by anyone for anything at this show, though. Nothing crazy happened, but as always any night at a Taylor Swift show is magical and memorable <3Â
13) 2015 - 1989 Tour Louisville, KY - OOOO Lucky #13 ;) This really was a lucky show. We went to the @taylornation booth and they were impressed by how many shows weâd each gone to, and when I told them all about my Masterâs Degree Thesis (I wrote it entirely on Taylor just a few months prior, and had just earned my graduate degree about a month before this show!). They were really intrigued by this and kept asking for all sorts of details lol when we left the booth, we barely made it far away before one of the girls from TN was chasing us down. My heart was beating SO FAST. She asked if weâd like to enjoy Taylor from the pit that night instead of our ticketed upper-level seats. OF COURSE! We didnât get offered Loft â89 that night, unfortunately, which once weâd been upgraded we didnât expect. Although, some girls nearby us did get upgraded and then later given Loft as well. Props to them! This was still one of my favorite show experiences and memories, especially because I heard the âCleanâ speech for the first time and I REALLY needed it at this time in my life. A lot of tears were shed.Â
14) 2015 - 1989 Tour Gillette Stadium, MA - We won tickets to this!! Couldnât believe it. Four of us got to go, and we drove TWELVE HOURS (it actually ended up being like 14 after traffic and stops etc haha) to go to this. This was one of the costume get-ups I am the most proud of. When we got to the TN booth, there werenât any of Taylorâs team working it (I guess it was stadium employees taking pics idk). We did our best to stand out during the show, but we didnât get to meet Taylor. I actually heard that there may not have even been a Loft that night, but there had been at the previous night Gillette show.
15) 2015 - 1989 Tour Columbus, OH - We loved our outfits for this, we were BAD BLOOD AF!! We didnât get noticed in any way this night, though. Taylor was still amazing as per usual and it was my last time seeing the 1989 Tour. We did, however, cry on the drive home feeling defeated yet againâŚ.
16) 2018 - Reputation Stadium Tour Columbus, OH - Just recently added this one because Iâm one show into the Rep Tour and have still not met Tay. My first show of the rep tour required me to drive 6 hours from Nashville (I moved here in 2016), but I was so excited that the drive there flew by! Iâve really been working hard to get noticed on social media this era (as youâve seen everything above wasnât working for me). I thought maybe this twitter thread was finally enough to get attention from Taylor/TN, so I honestly got my hopes up more than I shouldâve about getting a DM for pre-show. Iâm still not totally sure what was going on, but it seemed that there wasnât as many pre-show DMâs as usual and maybe the process is changing (or the holiday impacted it idk still really). Not that I thought I was a shoe-in or anything for a pre-show M&G, but the situation did make me feel like my shot of meeting Taylor now was definitely low. We were absolutely in AWE of every aspect of this show, though, let me tell you. I wasnât disappointed in any way by Taylorâs production. Wow. Just wow. We also were unexpectedly right next to one of the B-stages so Taylor was so close during that part of the show! I cried my eyes out to the âLong Liveâ & âNew Yearâs Dayâ mash-up because of my new long live tattoo and because NYD has significance to me and my relationship. Unfortunately, I ended up feeling AWFUL like a majority of the show though (like sick) and it got worse about halfway through.I spent a lot of time trying not to throw up or miss any of Taylor performing, and I toughed it out, but it wasnât the way I wanted to experience the show. I ended up having to sprint past everyone with Natalieâs help to make it to a bathroom and throw up and I felt awful our whole hour drive back to Natalieâs house. Itâs honestly probably good I didnât get picked for post-show rep room because of how bad I felt! ANYWAY Iâm still sad it didnât happen for me, but I am hopeful that it wasnât the right time and my time with Taylor is still coming.
CONCLUSION: I am not in anyway ungrateful for the @taylorswift experiences I have had thus far. I know I have gotten more from Andrea and @taylornation than many have. Some people havenât even gotten to see Taylor live! I know that, BUT my DREAM since before section #1 here has been to meet Taylor and thank her in person for everything sheâs helped me get through. So if itâs possible in anyway to make this happen so I can tell her that, show her my tattoos sheâs inspired, tell her about my thesis, etcâŚ.itâd mean the world to me.
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