Neatly raked autumn leaves are sent into a frenzy as our car flashes by, and just for a moment, their unrestricted movement fills me with a sense of peace. My eyes wander over to my father in the driver’s seat, focused as he safely races me home from school early. My fifteenth birthday had just passed by, marking over seven years of admiration for my favorite musician, Taylor Swift. I had never seen her live and it was the one thing I wanted more than anything in this world. So, per his promise, we sat in front of his computer in the presale line for Taylor Swift’s 1989 World Tour. I was overflowing with both anxiety and excitement; the lump in my throat made it impossible to speak. I begin to hum along to one of the melodies featured on the brand new ‘1989’ album to calm me down. As I watch the computer screen, lyrics repeat in my mind: “Are we out of the woods yet? Are we in the clear yet?” Sure enough, we purchased two tickets that day, and ten months later I was standing in Bridgestone Arena with my younger sister. Our first Taylor concert, my sister’s first concert ever. Every moment was magical. One of the final performances of the night was ‘Out Of The Woods,’ and admittedly this is the one I was most excited for. Her voice held strong and powerful as she sang the bridge two times for us, and I remember thinking that I had never felt more alive. WE were in screaming color. Every time I hear that song, I’m transported back to that night. Fast forward to 2023, and ‘Out Of The Woods’ is cemented as one of my favorite songs in Taylor’s discography. I was lucky enough to obtain tickets to The Eras Tour— following a Ticketmaster fiasco fifteen-year-old me would have never survived—which I attended in Nashville on May 6th, 2023. Every night on this tour, Taylor chooses two songs from her discography to play, with the notion that she won’t repeat any of her surprise songs. My best friend and I anxiously awaited as Taylor walked down the stage and picked up her guitar, grinning wildly at the crowd of 70,000 she had wrapped around her finger. With ten albums, the possibilities of song choices are endless. She tells us that she picked a song off ‘1989,’ and I immediately began to hope for my favorite. She continued to tease the track before starting to play, and the second she played the first line of ‘Out Of The Woods’ I began to sob. How could she have known? How could that have worked so perfectly? As if this wasn’t enough, Taylor ended up playing the bridge for us twice, just as she had in 2015. ‘Out Of The Woods’ is the pinnacle of my live experiences with Taylor Swift, which are some of the most cherished experiences of my lifetime. When I hear it, I remember everything. I remember my father’s effort to help me create memories that I can always cherish. I remember my little sister at eight years old experiencing her first concert, her hand in mine as we screamed every word. I remember the paper airplane confetti that floated down, and I remember scooping up pieces to take home. I remember driving with my friends out of the high school parking lot, our windows down and our volume turned as loud as it could go. I remember feeling seen and understood while lost in a crowd of 70,000 people. I remember everything.