It was a fairytale ♥ (again)

It's been a while, I know.  The picture up top still says I'm 23, though it's been a couple weeks now since that's been accurate.  Quick recap of my life:  Turned 24.  Celebrated with friends.  Drank way too much and could not shut up about giraffes and the fact that they have blue tongues.  Really paid for that night the next day.  Boring and normal life.  Flew to Florida.  Saw Taylor Swift in concert, and that's where we're at right now.

Back in 2011, my best friend and I saw Taylor Swift in concert for the first time.  It was amazing and magical and the best night ever.  I still think back to that night, and if someone were to ask me to name the 5 best nights of my life, that would be right up there at the top.  The day after the concert, I wrote about it so I would be able to look back on that magic-filled night.  Today is 2 days after our second Taylor concert, but I wouldn't be me if I didn't write about that second fairytale magical night.

The concert started at 7:30.  Doors opened at 6.  Floor ticket holders (us!) could start lining up at 3.  Since Cece lives about 5 hours away from the concert venue, we left her house a little after 9, giving ourselves plenty of time for traffic and getting lost and finding parking.  Right around 1:30, we arrived at the American Airlines Arena in Miami, and immediately after parking, we set off to find something to eat.  At Bayside (an outdoor mall right across from the arena), we found food - and a friend of mine!  A bunch of us from the website Tumblr had had a group chat going on for the past month or so, and we'd talked about meeting up before the concert.  Knowing how far away from the venue Cece and I were, I wasn't getting my hopes up for meeting these people I'd become friends with.  But there we were, minutes after arriving at Bayside, and I'd already run into one of them.  I think we saw and recognized each other at the same time, and greeted each other with the hugs and excitement of long-time friends who've gone years, or maybe only months, without seeing one another.  But Nadia and her friend were going one way, in search of pizza, while Cece and I were going the other, in search of absolutely anything food-wise.

We ate, then headed back to the car so she could put on her concert outfit, then, at around quarter to 3, headed over to Gate 4, where supposedly, floor ticket holders could begin lining up at 3.  We ran into Nadia and her friend (whose name I can't remember at this point...) again, and took pictures together.

You have to understand just how pretty Nadia's outfit was.  She recreated Taylor's 1989 Polaroids and was a bit of a Tumblr sensation back in January after the queen herself reblogged her post.  Her concert outfit was like a prom dress, but she'd attached her version of the Polaroids onto the back.  It was really clever and really pretty.

She had lower level seating and we had floor, so we said goodbye for now and each headed off to get in line to get in at the assigned gates.  Cece and I pretty quickly found gate 4, and joined the others who were already waiting in line.  At this point, it was just after 3, and the gate was supposed to open at 3.  We were basically waiting in line... to get in line.  Around 5, we were still waiting for this gate that should have been opened 2 hours previously.  Just then, another friend of mine walked past.  Again, I think we recognized each other at the same time, which probably had to do with the fact that we'd shared pictures of our concert costumes on our group chat.  Again, we greeted each other with hugs and "it's so good to see you!!!"s.  Thomas and his friend Roger had traveled for the concert as well, but they'd traveled much farther than I had!  They'd flown all the way from Norway to see Taylor!  (We took group pictures together too, but Thomas hasn't sent me them yet!)

Another of my friends from the group chat had got to go in early because she'd bought one of the VIP packages, and texted us all to tell us where the TaylorNation booth was inside.  Finally, finally, finally it was 6... and the gate was still locked.  And then it was 6:05... and then it was 6:10... and we were watching other people get to go in... and then it was getting close to 6:15 and then finally someone came to open the gate and we made our way up the the doors, where we passed through metal detectors and had our bags checked.  Once we finally got in and found our seats, we went in search of the famous TaylorNation booth.  By the time we found it (which was after I'd gotten distracted by the merch stand!), the line was so long that we decided not to even bother.  Just like the last time we saw Taylor in concert, I bought myself a t-shirt and a tour book.  And then, back to our seats as we waited for the concert to start.  I bought the tickets in November.  By the day of the concert, I'd been waiting 354 days for it... but that last half hour or so, that was the longest half-hour wait of my life.

The venue filled up and the lights went out.  It was starting.  Finally.  After 354 long days, it was finally happening.  Vance Joy opened for Taylor.  

Vance Joy.  We need to talk about Vance Joy.  I bought his album, Dream Your Life Away, because I knew he'd be opening for Taylor.  I wanted to learn the words to his songs.  I wanted to fall in love with his music.  I wanted so badly to like his music... but I just didn't.  I still don't.  Other than Riptide, there are only 2 songs on his album that I really like... but the rest of it, I skip them when they come on.  I tried so hard, but I just am not a fan.  But I knew enough of his music to be the only one in my row who sang along as he played.

I found that live, I liked him a lot better.  I liked him so much better live, and figured I'd give his CD a second chance.  Maybe my taste in music had changed in the (nearly) a year since I'd bought the concert tickets.  The next morning, as I was looking through the pictures I'd taken, I pulled his album up on iTunes and hit play, thinking I was going to have it on repeat for a while... but no.  Less than halfway through the first song, I gave up and went back to a Taylor playlist.  So I don't know what it is about him.  Live, I absolutely love him.  On CD, not so much.

Taylor was supposed to come on at 8:30.  Around 8:35ish, a couple people started chanting "Tay-lor! Tay-lor! Tay-lor!"  That lasted about a whole entire 30 seconds by the time they realized that hardly anyone was joining in.  I don't know exactly what time Taylor finally came on stage; a review of the show I read said it was 8:41, so I'm just going to go with that.  8:41 the lights went back down and the show began.

There is nothing like seeing the woman who has been your favorite for the past 9 years of your life in concert.  There is nothing like hearing nearly 20,000 people scream for her and sing/scream the words to her songs.  There's nothing like one person bringing 20,000 different people with 20,000 different lives and 20,000 different stories together and for those couple of hours, all 20,000 of us are exactly the same.  We're all there for the same reason - seeing Taylor at her happiest, performing for a sold out arena full of people who adore her.  There's nothing like sharing that moment with your best friend of the past 17 years.

Taylor opened with Welcome To New York, which isn't my favorite off the album, but has one of my favorite lines on the album.  You can want who you want / boys and boys/ and girls and girls.  Singing that line out with 20,000 other people... it was kind of a really magic moment.  It almost felt, sort of, empowering.  20,000 people scream!singing that you can be whoever you are and fall in love with whoever you fall in love with, it's honestly just this moment of yes.

She went from Welcome To New York to New Romantics, which is one of my favorite off the album and which I still think would have been such a great summer single.

Next was Blank Space, which is my favorite on 1989.  I say I don't have a favorite, but Blank Space currently has 548 plays on my iTunes, while the next closest is All You Had To Do Was Stay (which she didn't play) with only 260 plays at the moment.  After Blank Space, she killed me with a remixed version of I Knew You Were Trouble (from the RED album).  Her outfit.  Her vocals.  Everything.  It's hard to pick a favorite from that night, but I Knew You Were Trouble was one of my top favorite moments of the show.

After I Knew You Were Trouble, the first surprise guest of the night came out.  Dwayne Wade.  I don't watch basketball.  I'm not from Miami.  I'm not even from Florida.  I had absolutely no idea who this guy was.  Apparently he's a basketball player.  From the sounds of the screaming fans when Taylor brought him out, the other 20,000 people knew exactly who he was.  He presented Taylor with her own Miami Heat jersey - number 13; it's a well known fact that 13 is Taylor's favorite number,

She then moved into I Wish You Would, another of my favorites (despite the fact that it's got the least number of plays of any of 1989 on my iTunes).  And then How You Get The Girl.  Her outfit for that one was freaking adorable.  It was this light pink dress that lit up.  I was like "how are you even real right now???"  And then... the second surprise guest of the night came out.  Pitbull surprised the fans by coming out and singing Give Me Everything with Taylor.

I looked away from the stage for half a second to look at one of the pictures I'd taken, when Cece nudged me and pointed over to the catwalk.  Taylor was literally just a few feet away from us.  I swear I basically died.  I Know Places was next, and then an acoustic version of Fifteen (from the Fearless album),  I looked over to Cece.  "Can you believe we were fifteen when we became fans of her?"  It was the moment of realization of just how long it's been that I've been a fan of her.  It was the moment of realizing how different my life is now than when I was fifteen.  I'm 24 now.  I was in high school when I became a fan of Taylor.  Now?  Now I'm done with college.  In a lot of ways, I am still similar to my fifteen year old self, but overall I'm a completely different person than who I was nine years ago.  Looking back at 15... Taylor says it best in the lyrics to the song, when she says she realized some bigger dreams of hers.  And that's what it is.  When you're 15, you think you know it all.  You think you know who you're going to be and what life is going to be like, and then you get older and you see that you really didn't know anything.  When Fearless first came out, Fifteen wasn't my favorite song and I feel like it's because I was too young at the time to see the song for what it was.  Being older, Fifteen just means so much to me.  Watching her sing it, I felt myself tearing up because the song means so much.  It's a feeling I can't fully explain, but one I hope you can relate to as well.

After Fifteen, she kept emotions high as she gave the "Clean" speech, which is basically about cyber-bullying and standing up for yourself and how you're not the opinion of someone who doesn't know you.  The mean things that someone else says aren't true.  And then she sang Clean and the tears that formed during Fifteen finally fell.  It's a slow song, but it is so powerful and has so much meaning.  It's such an important song, and one that I feel like everyone should listen to at least once in their life.  Bringing things back up a notch, she launched right in the 1989 remix of Love Story (from the Fearless album).

That picture right there, above this line, is one of my favorite pictures of the night.  After Love Story came Style (and if Style isn't one of your top 5 on 1989, you're clearly listening to it wrong).  And then it was time for the third (and final) surprise guest of the night - Ricky Martin!  Taylor and Ricky rocked the house with Livin' La Vida Loca.  Those of us in the crowd who were "older" all knew the song, but I have to wonder how many of the younger teens/tweens/kids there knew it.

Taylor looked like she had a blast performing with him!  Up next was Bad Blood, and oh my god it was fun to hear 20,000 chanting along to the lyrics of that one.  And then, another of my favorite performances of the night, an absolutely amazing rock remix of We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together.  That performance GAVE ME LIFE.  Seriously, go to youtube and try to find a video of the 1989 tour version of that song.  I'm really gonna miss you picking fights / and me, falling for it, screaming that I'm right / and you would hide away and find your piece of mind / with some indie record that's MUCH COOLER THAN MINE!.  Taylor yelling out "much cooler than mine" the way she does... I need a studio recording of that version of that song in my life.  Please, Taylor.  Please.

She slowed it down again with a beautiful mash-up of Enchanted (from the Speak Now album) and Wildest Dreams, and then sped it right back up with Out Of The Woods.  There's a line in Out Of The Woods, two paper airplanes flying, flying (which is such a beautiful metaphor for a relationship like the one depicted in the song because even the best-made paper airplanes crash back down).. but anyway.  That line.  During the song, little paper airplanes fell down like confetti, and life was magical.

Far too soon, it felt, Taylor was singing the last song of the night - Shake It Off.  And it was a 20,000 person dance party.  More than once in Shake It Off (and during I Knew You Were Trouble), I swear she looked right at me, and I died every single time.  I know, logically, that she was just looking in that direction, but I'd really like to believe that she looked at me.

And then somehow... the concert was over.  For the two and a half hours Taylor was on stage, nothing else in life mattered.  She made everything else disappear, and that's exactly what is so wonderful about a Taylor Swift concert.  I'm a quiet person.  I'm shy and I don't like other people looking at me.  I don't talk much in large groups and I don't ever find myself in the middle of a dance floor, but something changes at a Taylor Swift concert.  For those couple of hours, I'm not myself.  Or maybe I actually am myself for once.  Being there is the most freeing feeling because for those couple of hours, I'm not shy or quiet or standing off to the side and watching everyone else dance.  For those couple hours, I get to dance like no one is watching, and my mind doesn't get to tell me "hey no, don't do this."  I know there are people out there who don't like Taylor, and that's fine, not everyone has to like her, but I will always be a fan of her music.  Taylor's music was there for me when no one else was.  With her music, I feel like she's always been there for me and I know that she always will be.  I don't think I can fully put into words how much Taylor means to me, but I know for a fact that I would not be the person I am if I had never listened to her music.  She is a person who I will forever be thankful for.

After the lights came up, Cece and I joined the crowd of people heading back outside... and ran into Nadia and her friend, and Thomas and his friend again.  Of course, group pictures were a necessity!

Thank you Taylor for bringing us all together.  Florida, New York, and Norway... we never would have met in life without you, Taylor, and so I thank you so much for bringing us together.  Thank you for such a magical night.

And then it was time for a nearly 5 hour drive back....