Short Stories

That One Time I was Mistaken for Taylor Swift

⠀ "Disney is a place of magic"
Sure, this is true. The atmosphere is indescribable and I'm sure you could bring Scrooge into the magical park and even he would smile. Things have changed a little though, to my resentment, as I now know that the Cinderella standing in front of the castle is not actually Cinderella and Ariel's lagoon was not actually excavated from the fathoms below. Nonetheless, I still got a tingle of excitement when I hugged Ariel, or saw Gaston flaunting the boulders resting on his ripped arms.
⠀I was now interested in other things; "Grown up" things. Sure the books were written for 10 year olds at first but I could have stayed in Harry Potter world for hours on end. Why didn't they have a Draco Malfoy here, anyway? Is there a spot open? Could I be the face character for Draco? They really needed to get on with that.
⠀But that day as we walked to Animal Kingdom, I got my own dose of magic. There I was, standing in line for the safari ride when something caught my eye. A woman and her child were pushing through the line, and before I knew it I had a girl looking up at me like I was some princess. I was going to open my mouth to speak, but the mother looked me straight in the eyes:
⠀"Hey, Taylor Swift! I knew you would be here! Would you mind taking a picture and signing an autograph?" She winked.
⠀Then I knew this girl thought I was T-Swizzle herself, and her mom went along with it. My hands started to shake.
⠀"Mom said she messaged you on Facebook and you said you'd be here! You guys are friends on Facebook too, by the way!"
⠀I looked up at the mother. Another encouraging nod and a wink was given.
⠀At this point my mom looked so enthused that she might have just started jumping up and down, and the woman and her daughters behind us were gasping in awe. Everyone around us thought it was adorable, while I was having a panic attack.
⠀I weakly laughed and nodded, exclaiming, "Wow! That's awesome that I got to see you today!" as the girl scooted over by my side for a picture. She was literally jumping with excitement as the pictures snapped, trying to stay still as much as she could.
⠀ As soon as pictures were over she whipped her little body around, looking up at me and handing me a yellow scrap piece of paper, "Please sign!"
⠀ I tried to keep my voice from shaking. My cover was going to be blown: I didn't know what her signature looked like, and at that point I was freaking out so much on the inside I didn't even know if I could spell her name.
⠀ "A-Alright, but it may be pretty messy..." I say as I scribble my boyish cursive onto the paper, adding a lopsided heart after Swift. The fact that my hands were uncontrollably shaking did not make things any better.
⠀The mother quickly spoke up, "It's alright, you were caught off guard."
⠀ Bless you, woman.
⠀ After more squealing and jumping, they said their goodbyes, and went back to their place in line. I could barely catch my breath before the woman and her daughters behind us swooped in.
⠀"That was adorable! Did she really think you were Taylor Swift? So cute! So adorable!"
⠀ My mom continued to fan over this event with this woman, and I just nervously nodded and smiled the whole time. I couldn't believe that just happened.
⠀We eventually made it to the cars, and as I slid in I could see the mother and her daughter waving excitedly to me in the distance as they still waited. I slipped on my sunglasses, trying my best celeb look as possible, waving back.
⠀ My mom looked at me, "What do you think she'll say when she's older and she finds out you aren't her?"
⠀ I sat there for a second and shrugged, "Bless that poor girl's heart."
⠀ But I hope that she will understand that she had made me happy, and it will be a moment that I'll never forget, thanks to her.
⠀ Her and her mother made Disney's magic return to me once more.