I almost got scammed out of a thousand dollars today.

Somehow, in spite of everything, I spend most days with an abundance of hope that people in this world are good and kind and don’t want to hurt others. Maybe I’m too naive, even with everything I’ve done through. Inevitably I get properly disillusioned, but it doesn’t seem to stick. Hope prefers to win, apparently, so, I know that cup will refill in due course. Today though, I am bummed about human nature.

I have a dear friend who’s been through the wringer, and is quite an inspiration to me. She has an amazing family; I’ve taught her daughter, the oldest of three, and her older son, for years, and her youngest son is a friend of my daughter’s. I know everyone deserves to have their dreams come true, but I really feel this is especially the case for my friend and her daughter, who is a HUGE Taylor Swift fan. She’s been hoping to find a way to get her daughter tickets to a Taylor Swift concert, the feasibility of which is like winning the lottery and getting struck by lightning at the exact same time. Normally, it is of course way beyond my power to help make this happen, but I sure have hoped and kept fingers crossed, and kept an eye out for opportunities. You never know, right?

Well, today, randomly, in a Facebook group for teachers that I am a part of, someone happened to post that they were selling four tickets to Taylor’s concert in Indianapolis. Not exactly close to us, but, not impossible to get to. I messaged the person as the post instructed, and a conversation followed in which we discussed the seats themselves, how it works to share tickets via Ticketmaster, and how to send payment via Venmo. I stated that I would be happily able to send money right away, after I received the tickets in the Ticketmaster app. (I’m naive, but not so naive as to send random strangers money before receiving goods.) There was a little more back and forth, and the seller tried to suggest we could do one ticket at a time if I preferred, sending her money and then she’d send the ticket. When I reiterated that I’d send money after receiving tickets, they stopped responding. When I went back to the Facebook group, the original post was gone.

Scammers gonna scam, I suppose.

Fortunately I’m not out any money, just out of optimism. I’m sad that sucky people do this, and I’m sad that I can’t do more for the good people who truly deserve good things.

I do believe in karma, though, and maybe for these scammers, retribution will be swift. (See what I did there? And bonus points if you realized it’s also a quote from one of the Lord of the Rings films! Haha.)

P.S. Just in case there’s a zillion to one chance Taylor actually hears about this — I have a student for whom your music has made such an impact, and while it isn’t my place to share their story in this way, I feel like it’s something you should know. Because when people do good for other people (however distantly), they should be told about that.

You never know, maybe she will read my blog. I guess you can’t keep me from hoping for too long after all.