The picture you see above was taken by my best friend, Giuli, the day we both took a selfie with Taylor Swift. This is probably the best day of my life because, if you can’t tell already, Taylor Swift is my one and only inspiration in life. I have loved her for as long as I can remember, and this was a dream come true. Let me rewind to how this all happened.
On September 2nd, Giuli sent me a post announcing that Taylor Swift would be attending the Toronto Film Festival(TIFF) on September 9th. Giuli is also obsessed with Taylor Swift, and by that, I mean we praise, love, and adore her (basically any other synonym of love you can find). Taylor Swift’s TIFF screening was called In Conversation with Taylor Swift, and she answered Q&A’s about her short film All Too Well while also showing fans a screening of the film. Giuli and I were desperate to get tickets to TIFF, although we knew it seemed impossible. She had a friend who had a TIFF membership, so we were hoping they could get us some tickets. We also registered in a contest to win tickets for the screening. After a week passed by, we did not manage to get them, but we did not lose hope either. We were determined to still go to the TIFF Bell Lightbox and spot Taylor.
Finally, it was the day. Friday, September 9th, the absolute best day of our life. I woke up that day in a good mood. I had a dream that Giuli and I met Taylor Swift and had a whole conversation with her, so I was already manifesting good energy into our day. I went to my regular work shift and met up with Giuli before our class. We had class from four to six PM, but we left early to be able to catch Taylor before her screening at seven. As we were in class, Giuli was checking the updates on Twitter. Apparently, fans had been lining up since the morning to see if they could get a view of Taylor. This was when we started losing hope. In my head, I was the only Taylor Swift fan, and therefore, no one would be interested in seeing her outside TIFF. Reality struck me that she is probably the most famous and loved singer on this planet. We finally left class and took the TTC to St. Andrew station. The whole ride there, we were going back and forth on whether we were about to meet Taylor Swift or not. It is safe to say the only thing we talked about for the entire week was this moment.
As we were walking towards the building, the streets were filled with people excited to walk through TIFF. As we approached the building, it was crazy to see the amount of people who were lined up screaming “TAYLOR TAYLOR TAYLOR”. We tried to sneak our way in between the crowd and stood right in the entrance of the building. We heard many saying that Taylor already entered and there were no chances we were going to see her. We tried not to lose hope and stayed there for around 20 minutes. Unfortunately, security kicked everyone out and said Taylor was already inside, you are not going to see her. Giuli and I decided to go to the back entrance of the building to see if we had more chances. When we got to the back, there were obviously fans standing there as well. We stood there for another 20 minutes when Giuli received a Twitter update of Taylor Swift and Sadie Sink posing at the TIFF red carpet. This is when we officially lost hope. I was genuinely sad because I really thought I was at least going to get to see her. I guess all I could say was that I was officially in front of the same building where Taylor Swift currently was inside. Giuli and I decided to head back home and as we were slowly walking towards the subway we heard fans screaming as if there was no tomorrow. Without any hesitation, we sprinted all the way to the back entrance. Keep in mind, we were literally two minutes away from missing Taylor’s appearance.
We ran back and were immediately in a crowd of hundreds of fans when for the very first time, I saw Taylor Swift in real life. I was in complete and utter shock. Giuli and I were shaking and could not stop screaming. Taylor came out from the parking entrance and took the time to greet and take pictures with all of her fans. All the fans were standing in a semi-circular shape and Taylor went through the whole circle while taking a few selfies with those who managed to be at the front. She started at one end, and since we were all the way at the other end, we had time to admire her beauty as she made her way towards us. Giuli and I were not at the front of the line, but we were pretty close. All the fans started singing her “All Too Well (10 Minute Version)” song as we waited for Taylor to make her way towards us. It was beautiful to be surrounded by so many Swifties. As she started getting closer we all started yelling. There was a lot of screaming and pushing as you can imagine. Finally, the moment we have all been waiting for, Taylor Swift was right in front of my eyes. I could not believe what was happening. I was yelling my lungs out and trying to get her to take my phone for a selfie. Unfortunately, she did not end up picking up my phone, but we did manage to get a selfie with her and a couple of other strangers. It is my honour to share that Giuli and I have a picture with Taylor Swift. After she left, everyone was still screaming while in awe. We asked the girl to send us all the pictures. This picture is now stuck with me forever, and this is a moment I will never forget. Giuli and I have a picture with Taylor Swift, and nothing will ever beat this. It was the best day of my life.