Determination Starts With the Letter Ex

I'm not all things, but one thing I know I am, is determined. 

And that's how I got my ex boyfriend to buy me a Taylor Swift Eras Tour ticket for $2,500. 

In 2022, my sisters and I waited in the Ticketmaster queue, with 2,000 people ahead of us, for the highly-coveted concert tickets. 

Like many others, we didn't get tickets. 

And for the next two years I watched the Eras Tour, from afar, on Instagram. 

Every song clip, every outfit change, every surprise guest, every silly stage malfunction, every Swiftie friend of mine attending. The algorithm knew what I wanted and it delivered. 

I hoped to one day get there, but resale tickets were going for more than my mortgage. 

At the end of last summer, Taylor finished her European leg of the tour, took a beat and then finished with a handful of shows by December. 

That's when determination reared its cute little head. I was going, somehow. 

First call was to my mom. She bought my sister a very expensive handbag on Rodeo Drive the previous spring, surely she would be as generous with another daughter. Ha! I'm not the favorite, or the second favorite, so no tickets for me. 

Eventually I called my ex, who I still kept in touch with. We've been friends for five years and ended up dating till he royally messed everything up beyond repair last summer. 

I didn't guilt trip him. Didn't beg. I simply asked, "What would it take for you to buy me Eras Tour tickets?" 

He felt so bad for what he did he bought the tickets on the spot. When I got the confirmation email, I literally screamed. 

I WAS GOING TO THE ERAS TOUR!! 

October 18, Miami. 

I knew hotels and Airbnbs would be hard to come by this late, so I planned to stay at our family condo in Fort Myers. I would drive the 90 minutes or so across Alligator Alley, blasting Taylor the whole way, to the concert. 

Then the hurricanes hit. 

With Fort Myers no longer an option, I decided to fly to Orlando, stay at my sister's and drive the three to four hours to Miami just for the concert. 

The day of, I left at noon thinking I'd get there around 4pm and have plenty of time to tailgate with friends I discovered would be there. The concert started at 7pm, Taylor went on at 8pm. 

Not only did I not take the shortcut (I stuck to highways I knew), I hit so much traffic due to multiple collisions on the way down it prolonged my trek by hours. 

And I knew parking at the concert would be an absolute nightmare X 10, so I decided to park at the Fort Lauderdale airport and Uber over. 

I didn't arrive to the airport until 6:45. Instead of jumping in one of the eight taxi cabs lined up, I ordered an Uber…which was a 20-minute wait. 

A very nice woman picked me up who was new to Uber and also new to Miami. Let's just say she took her nice old time and needed me to help navigate to Hard Rock stadium. 

I finally arrived to the stadium and jumped out. It was 7:47. 

Turns out I had to run-walk a few more blocks (was not wearing running shoes) to the entrance. I was on the sidewalk still searching for the entrance when the crowd started screaming. 

Taylor was starting and I was missing it. The big pink flags waving, her popping up from the bottom of the stage belting out Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince. I've seen it a million times on Instagram, and later the concert movie on streaming. 

I heard the crowd screaming, Taylor singing, but was still outside the stadium looking for the entrance. 

"It's Ok Ceej," I said to myself. "You're missing it but you're here and you just need to get inside." 

I finally get to the entrance, breeze through three points of security, get my light up bracelet, race upstairs and get to my seat. It was 8:15pm. 

I still hate that I missed the first two songs, but I had three more hours of Eras Tour to experience. 

The rest of the concert was unreal. For my fellow Swifties, it was Miami night one: Taylor debuted the new Reputation outfit where me, the strangers next to me who I pretty sure I smacked from excitement and 65,000 other Swifities lost our MINDS over. 

Oct. 18, 2024 was one of the best nights of my life. For three hours I screamed every song along with a stadium full of Swifties. I didn't think about anything else: not work, not my ex, not the polarizing presidential election that was weeks away, not one stresser. 

Just Black Space. and August. and Look What You Made Me Do. and Enchanted. And 22. 

After the concert was more traffic and mess. I ended up stopping at a hotel off I-95 and sleeping for four hours before taking the shortcut back to Orlando the next morning. 

I still talk to my ex and thank him frequently for the ticket. 

And I have since gotten a Taylor Swift lyric tattooed on my arm: To Live For The Hope Of It All. 

Because isn't that what we're all doing anyway, living for the hope of it all? 

That's exactly what I did. I hoped for the Eras Tour, and determination got me there. Just in this instance, determination started with the letter ex. 

What are you determined to do? 

Bio: CJ Fairfield is a senior associate editor at CRN covering solution providers, MSPs and distributors. She holds a Master’s degree in International Journalism from Brunel University London. Prior to joining CRN, she worked at daily newspapers, including The Press of Atlantic City in New Jersey and The Frederick News-Post in Maryland. She lives in New Jersey with her shitzu-bichon mix, Kenley.