Butterflies in my stomach, having to up my oxygen flow….this is how I felt right before entering the room where I met Taylor Swift ….Yes that’s right…I met the Queen.
Rewind to two weeks before, July 30, 2015. My best friend Kelsey and I had been waiting for the 1989 tour to come to Santa Clara since December. Taylor has always been someone that we turned to when times got rough. For Kelsey it was an intense break up and for me it was my life-threatening disease called cystic fibrosis. Taylor has always brought me so much joy, whether it was through her music or just how much of a caring and genuine person she is. In the hospital you can hear me rocking out to her albums to get me through the boring and bad days. Since she has made such a positive impact on my life, I knew I had to meet her and I would have to make it happen. That night, I told Kelsey that we need to write my story on a poster and take a picture of it with me since my story wouldn’t fit in 140 twitter characters. So, we put together a poster and took a picture of me with her poster on my wall with my “Speak Now” concert tee shirt on. We started with Snapchat and told people to screen shot and share it. Then we took to twitter where we tweeted at our favorite Bravo-lebrities. A few seconds later, they retweeted my post. Kelsey and I were literally crying on my bedroom floor. We posted it on Instagram and Twitter all with the hashtag, #LUNGS4TIFF. This campaign to get Taylor’s attention went viral. We both were getting so many notifications that we had to turn them off to sleep. I even went over my data limit by a bunch this month. My post went viral to the point that NBC Bay Area news found me and did a story for the 5 and 6 o’clock news. It ended up running many more times after that. We didn’t know that this was going to get more attention than that. Before we knew it, we were getting stories on our local Patch and other online news providers.
About a week after we posted the picture on social media, I looked at my Facebook messages and read a message from a woman by the name of Tree Paine. If you are a Swiftie, you know that’s a big deal. She told me to call her. I called and made sure it was real and IT SURE WAS. I hung up and had to contain my excitement and emotions before leaving a message. After this, I was in my car in tears, calling my friends and family. I had no idea if I was going to meet her but the odds seemed to be in my favor.
Monday came and went and I didn’t hear anything. The next day was a great day though, August 11. Not only was this my best friend Kelsey’s birthday, but also this is when the dream became a reality. I called Tree a few times, with no answer and finally she answered after a few phone calls. She had just stepped into the office and apologized for not being in on Monday. She told me that Taylor saw my post and wants to meet me….ME…let’s say that again….TAYLOR SWIFT WANTS TO MEET ME!! I paced in and out of Kelsey’s house while she was on her phone with her grandma. I pretty much freaked out and hung up the phone after speaking with Tree and yelled, “IM GOING TO MEET TAYLOR SWIFT!!!!” Kelsey and I started crying and hugging in her front yard. It was so surreal that a week and a half prior we were in my bedroom making that poster and now we were going to meet her in 4 days.
AUGUST 15, 2015
Concert day!! I don’t think I can tell you how I felt this day. It was so many amazing emotions that I just can’t even put into words. I had my makeup done by the lovely Lily (Instagram: @mua_glitterqueen) and my outfit all picked out. My hair was curled and Kelsey and I had a hotel room for the night. We got to Levis stadium where were escorted to the will call line. This is where we revealed what time our meet and greet was. We looked at the envelope that read, “Taylor Swift Guest,” that alone was enough to make me feel butterflies. We sat down in the handicap line and opened up the envelope. We had a meet and greet at 6:30 and, to our surprise, SECOND ROW SEATS!!!! Literally could not deal with how amazing this was. The doors to Levis Stadium were not open yet, so we went to the restaurant and got ourselves some “Love Story” drinks because when they have drinks named after Taylor Swift, you must try them.
Once we were done, we entered the stadium where we were the first guests in the building. We walked in and were the only ones in the stadium other than the workers. This in itself was super special. We were able to get our gear before the crowd and find our awesome second row seats. We had some time to kill, so listening to music and walking around was what we did. I was stopped by a bunch of people that had saw me on the news and on social media. It was such a great experience. Then 6:15 came and Kelsey and I decided to go stand over where our meet and greet said to be, early because we were not going to miss this! This was where we checked in and got the most fun Taylor Swift wristbands. This is when it got real. We were taken into a room and we waited. Well Taylor was having a glam issue, so she was running late. Let’s be real, being a girl myself. I TOTALLY understood this. Her dad came in and met with us and gave us waters and guitar picks. He was so incredibly nice. After waiting, we were lead into Loft ’89. This is a lounge where the magic of Taylor Swift happens! We were the second people to meet her. The first was Ryan, a 10-year-old with bone cancer, who didn’t even know she was meeting her. It made my heart so happy. When I was standing there in front of the curtain and I could see her through the crack, I got the biggest butterflies of my life. I was nervous and excited and went through my head of what I should say. We got the okay to go in and I went in saying “HI TAYLOR!” and she was like “HI FRIENDS” and gave me and Kelsey the biggest and best hugs ever. I remember it being an out of body experience. It was so surreal that she was standing in front of me and hugging me and talking to me. The QUEEN was talking to me and meeting me, We talked about my post and how multiple friends had sent it to her. We talked about how we all matched and were twinning. Then we took the best photo of my life. Then I told her thank you for being my inspiration and getting me through everything that I go through and all that she does. She told me that I was courageous and am going through so much and she was proud. She was just so happy to meet me and to keep strong. I contained my tears. I left her with another big hug and a thank you. Once I went through the curtain, I dropped to my knees and cried. It was the most surreal moment of my life and I will cherish it forever.
The concert was the best concert I had ever been to. I made new friends for life in the crowd and was able to stop thinking of my lung disease and being on the transplant list for one night. It was by far best night of my life. This all wouldn’t have happened with out the power of social media and the people behind it. Thank you to everyone that shared my photo and made it his or her mission to see my dream come true. My heart is still so full even a year later. Also, Thank you, Taylor! I can’t wait to have my next post go viral that I got new lungs!
