As this docuseries gets closer, I keep thinking about what we are actually going to see.
We are about to see her truth….
the weight she carried, the strength she found, the moments she protected, the pressure she held alone…all of the pieces of her story we never got to see from the crowd.
Thinking about her journey…is making me look back on everything this era carried for us too.
Everything we lived.
Everything we survived.
Everything we became.
And the closer it gets, the more I feel this overwhelming amount of gratitude…because remembering her journey makes me remember ours.
What we lived through beside her.
What we carried.
What we became together.
Because while she was living this era under the brightest spotlight imaginable and creating something historic…
we were living some of the most unforgettable moments of our lives.
Swifties didn’t just witness a tour.
We lived inside a once in a lifetime chapter together.
We drove through states we’d never been to, chasing something that felt bigger than geography.
We flew to other countries to go to a show with people who we only ever talked to through a screen.
We sat through Ticketmaster disasters (which honestly should count as personality defining events).
We watched livestreams from strangers phones at hours that made absolutely no sense for our sleep schedules.
We screamed over setlist changes like they were national emergencies.
We lost our minds when the surprise songs started…
and we cried when they ended.
And when I look back now…
it wasn’t just about the music.
It was about who we were becoming while we were living it.
It was the random girl who traded you a bracelet and is somehow still in your phone today…
and you can’t picture your life without her now.
It was the stranger who looked at your outfit and said, “You look amazing. Have the best night,” and he meant every word.
It was the row of girls who screamed a bridge with you and didn’t need to know your name to understand you.
It was the bathroom pep talks, the eyeliner fixes, the hugs from people who somehow knew exactly what that song meant to you.
It was the hotel rooms full of laughter you wished you could bottle.
The insane merch lines.
The blurry photos.
The airport naps.
The chaos of trying to coordinate meeting spots in a crowd of 70,000.
The shaking hands holding up phones when she stepped onstage.
The way every single person in that stadium felt like a reflection of some part of you…
the hopeful part, the hurting part, the healing part.
It was a post asking “Who’s going Night 2?”
that turned into a group chat, that turned into “text me when you make it home,”
and then they somehow became the people who carried you through things completely unrelated to Taylor Swift.
They became the friends who stayed.
The ones who checked on you.
The ones who heard your story and listened without judgment.
The ones who held space for you when you were falling apart.
The ones who celebrated you when you finally climbed out of the dark place that you’d been in.
It was realizing, maybe for the first time…that you weren’t alone in the way you feel everything so deeply.
We didn’t know it then…
but that era was healing us.
Because when she was finding her strength,
we were finding ours.
When she was standing on that stage giving everything she had, we were out here giving everything we had just to make it through, too.
When she was telling her story, she was also helping us rewrite ours.
Because of her, because of this tour,
We healed.
We loved.
We found magic.
We remembered who we were.
We found people we didn’t even know we were missing.
Her story changed the world.
It changed us.
And now, we get to see her truth…the moments she protected, the battles we never saw, the weight she carried with such unbelievable grace.
And I know…
I already know…
I’m going to be crying, not just for her, but for us.
For who we were.
For who we found.
For who we lost.
For who we became because of this.
I’m going to be pulled right back into the version of myself who needed this era…
and found comfort in millions of people who needed it too.
I’ll remember the miles.
The late nights.
The friendships I didn’t expect but can’t imagine my life without now.
The way music, of all things, became the invisible sting that tied us together and turned strangers into family.
Us Swifties didn’t just witness a cultural moment.
We helped build something that didn’t disappear when the lights finally went out.
Something that we’ll tell our grandchildren about.
Something that we’ll feel for the rest of our lives.
We lived inside an era that felt like childhood, rebirth, chaos, joy, heartbreak, healing, and HOME…
all at once.
And I am grateful.
So deeply, fiercely, overwhelmingly grateful…
for her, for you, for us.
For the magic we made without even trying.
For the parts of my life that only exist because this era happened at the exact moment I needed it to.
For giving us something to believe in…
and because we became a family because of it.
I cannot wait to see her story.
And I cannot wait to feel ours all over again.
💚💛💜❤️🩵🖤🩷🩶🤎💙🤍
— Olivia Johnson
Your Favorite Neighborhood Swiftie ✨🫶🏻
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(Directly sharing helps me more than you know, but please don’t steal my work. 🖤) @taylorswift @taylornation
