I saw Taylor Swift for the first time in fourth grade. After saving birthday money to buy her albums and playing them on blast on my purple boombox, my parents surprised me with tickets to the Fearless tour. I spent weeks reading every article I could about her and was so excited to go to my very first concert. My dad told me tour shirts with the dates on the back were the best shirts at the merch table- I still have that tiny shirt and have only bought tour-date concert tees since. At that show two teenage, or early twenty-something, girls let me switch places with them when Taylor was walking down our aisle to play a song. Because of their kindness, little me got to shake hands with her idol.

Just under 10 years later I listened to Folklore with my best friend in a trailer in the mountains. The pandemic had sent us home from college and we’d been apart for the longest time since we met as random assignment roommates. Both in new relationships, we giggled and cried to the story album. A year and a half later, and no longer in those relationships, we sat 1200 miles from each other and listened to Red (Taylor’s Version) together on Zoom. 

Flash forward 13 years from the first concert to the Eras tour. My best friend’s mom surprised her with Denver Eras tour tickets for her birthday- with the show being a week before mine. The weekend of the show we reunited after 6 months apart and rolled up to the stadium with our matching Poison Ivy/Dasiy costumes on. We handed out friendship bracelets (lovingly made by my sister) to people working the show and made our way to the gates. We were quickly stopped by a red screen reading SCREENSHOT DETECTED. Our tickets didn’t work. We were directed and redirected to gate after gate and finally found ourselves camped out in the shade of a Bronco’s billboard while her mom called the ticketing agency. As the first opener closed, I was resigned to not getting in and began to hand out the rest of my bracelets. I approached a woman who had been clearly busy running around and asked to give her two bracelets. She paused, accepted the bracelets and asked where I was sitting and how many people were with me. I told her it was just a friend and I and we had tickets to the 500 section. She smiled, asked me to call my friend over and handed us two paper tickets. 

We were ecstatic at the possibility of going in while still on hold with the agency. She directed us to the club entrance and told us to use our original tickets to check in and then follow the signs to our new seats. A bit dejected, we showed her the tickets, explained they hadn’t worked and we were on the phone to get them fixed. Hearing what happened, she told us not to worry and escorted us through security where we handed bracelets to everyone we could reach. In the elevator (going down!) we were all giggles and gave the girl working the elevator bracelets. She gave us guitar picks given to her by Taylor Swift’s dad to hand out. Thrilled, we landed on the first floor and raced out to find our seats.

Stepping out of the elevator felt like a fever dream. There were people flooding the hallway, all wearing costumes, while MUNA’s music pumped through from the field. I ran out to the seats to catch some of What I Want and was pulled back in by my friend to find our real seats. The evening got more exciting with each step as we realized we needed to go down another floor to reach our seats. We were escorted by kind team member after kind team member through construction to section A1, middle of the stage and right next to the VIP tent. In a matter of minutes, we had gone from losing our seats behind the screen in the nosebleed to the row right after floor seats. 

We were surrounded by other giddy concertgoers who had been randomly upgraded by Empower Field team members and couldn’t believe our luck. As the seats required moving through construction, we were escorted by team members to non-crowded drink lines and a private bathroom as needed. 

This incredible string of luck was made possible by kindness. The kindness of my friend’s mom to get us both tickets. The kindness of my sister for making our bracelets and driving us to the show. The kindness of security guards who were patient with countless swifties. The kindness of the Empower Field employee who gave us incredible seats. The kindness of the elevator operator who gave us guitar picks and the kindness of the guards who escorted us to our section. Of the audience who screamed every lyric and let others do the same without annoyance. Of my best friend who gathered the little confetti that landed around us and handed it to the mothers and children in the rows she could reach. Of the RTD workers who told countless groups how to get home. Of little girls who remembered to say thank you when we gave them bracelets and squished ourselves so they’d have room. The kindness of two girls 13 years ago who let little me be that much closer to something that I love. I am so grateful to live in a world that smiles at the little things we can do to make everyone’s day better.