We were enchanted to meet you, Taylor Swift

Courtesy of Claire Zheng

Saachi and Sunny at Swift’s ‘Eras Tour.’

Once upon a time, the planets and the fates and all the stars aligned, and we ended up in the same stadium with Taylor Swift at the same time. Yes, we got tickets, somehow.

After surviving the Great War against Ticketmaster last November, we — meaning Saachi — secured three tickets to see THE Taylor Swift in Swiftie Clara’s Levi’s Stadium on July 29. 

As the concert approached, we all busied ourselves with concert outfit planning, fantasizing about how it’ll be, and —  the most important part — making the friendship bracelets. As we sat around Saachi’s dining table with an assortment of multicolored beads making these bracelets, we were bursting with anticipation. 

Photo by Saachi Jain

So make the friendship bracelets, take the moment to taste it…

Fast forward a few hours, as we all piled into our seats at the stadium and watched the countdown to her appearance tick down, the screams only increased. The three of us sounded like animals as we sang so hard we lost our voices.  

The riveting concert tour was an incredible 3-hour performance, spanning through all of Swift’s musical eras, or albums, released in the last decade. 

The “Lover” section opened the show, and the set was perfect: As the notes of “Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince” sounded throughout the stadium, which fittingly repeated the lyrics “It’s been a long time coming,” the whole stadium screamed in unison. 

Swift then transitioned seamlessly to “Cruel Summer,” another one of her top hits. And the bridge of that song, with multiple melody lines blending into a crescendo that spilled over the entire stadium, lit in a glowing pink — was simply too powerful as we all screamed our little hearts out. As she was performing, the sun was setting, so the sky was painted in all the sunset colors associated with the “Lover” album. Coincidence? We think not. Too soon, we had said goodbye to “Daylight” and moved onto the “Fearless” era. 

Photo by Sunny Cao

Swift in her “Lover” era.

We could not describe our cathartic rush of complete giddiness as Taylor skipped out in a gold fringe dress with her guitar and “Fearless” playing in the background. We really didn’t know how it could get better than this — until it did. 

We ventured into the misty woods of the “Evermore” album as everyone bawled their eyes out to “Marjorie,” a heartfelt song about Swift’s grandmother. 

After “Evermore,” no one was ready for “Reputation.” We will never forget the first ‘dun dun dun’ notes of “Ready for it?” rattling through our bones. When Swift strutted out in that snake bodysuit, we nearly passed out from excitement. We can never forget Sunny’s fear of the large snake that shadowed the stadium — it was merely CGI (computer-generated imagery), but scary nonetheless. 

As the set slowly turned from black to purple, Swift walked out in her iconic “Speak Now” era purple ball gown, reminiscing back to her country days to perform “Enchanted” and “Long Live.” We all bathed in the fantasy princess vibes that she gave showered us with. 

Photo by Sunny Cao

Swift’s iconic “Speak Now” ballgown

It was amazing to hear all 10 minutes of “All Too Well,” a fan-favorite from her album “Red” that only grew in popularity after she recorded the 10-minute version two years ago. However, after that 10-minute emotional rollercoaster of hearing dizzying screams of 70,000 people screaming-singing the tragic breakup ballad and barely contained sobs, we were all too unwell. Our hearts were pounding out of our chests, and the screams that echoed through our eardrums left us on the verge of passing out.

Luckily, Swift, being the icon that she is, allowed us time to recover emotionally with one of her less tragic albums, “Folklore,” which had the most songs, much to Sunny’s excitement, since it was her favorite album. Tears ricocheted off our faces when she played “Betty,” “August” and “Cardigan.” When her olive green, flowy silk dress took the stage, the stadium calmed down with Swift’s indie-pop and the low notes of her piano.

Soon after, one of the most anticipated moments of the night arrived: surprise songs, a section of the concert where she plays two songs that are not on the setlist and vary with each performance. As the ending notes of “Bad Blood” faded away throughout the stadium, our heart rates tripled as Swift again made her way to the front stage with her guitar.

 The surprise songs were “All of the Girls You Loved Before,” which was recently released as an additional track from her “Lover” album, and “Stay Stay Stay” from her “Red” album. The two songs were throwbacks to the 2010s era, and we were all hit with a wave of nostalgia as we screamed along to the lyrics. 

As we approached midnight and neared the end of the concert, Swift — suitably — started singing her latest album, “Midnights.” We couldn’t believe the three-and-a-half hour concert was almost over, but we were determined to enjoy every last second of the Midnights era. We are pretty sure everyone, and we mean everyone, went crazy over her fierce performance of “Vigilante Sh*t.” The entire stadium was shaking as the venue-issued light up wristbands were flashing together in various patterns. We ended the night with “Karma,” the perfect party song and emotional uplift after the rollercoaster she just took us on. 

After navigating through 70,000 people trying to leave a stadium at once, traffic and PTSD (Post-Taylor Swift Depression), the reality of the fact that we just went to the Eras Tour didn’t hit us until the next day. We were all beyond exhausted and had lost our voices by the end of the concert but everything was completely worth it.  

Photo by Sunny Cao

After the Eras Tour

Looking back, it was easily the most transformational concert experience of our lives. The three hours could not have gone by any quicker, and by the end, the whole thing felt like a fever dream because of how much fun we had in the moment. The concert lived up to every little second of all of the pining and anticipation over the last seven months. And all of our aching feet and complete exhaustion were all completely worth it to see THE Taylor Swift live. We’ll never forget it.