I hope you think of me

I AM CRYING SO HARD TAYLOR SWIFT IS AN ANGEL

PLEASE BE IN MY LIFE FOREVER YOU ARE LITERALLY THE BEST HUMAN IN MY LIFE

taylorswift

that’s better

is this thing on?

THE KOI FISH GUITAR IM— @taylorswift

crying

14 years ago, 17-year-old Taylor Swift won a CMT award and promised to thank every single fan who voted for her in person. A beaming 6th grader turned to her mother and said, “She wants to meet me!” A few months later, Taylor stayed after a show for two hours to meet any fan who waited. I was 12, impressionable, insecure, and a new country music fan. Taylor spent several minutes with me—thanking me for waiting and for listening to her music, and telling me I was pretty— words I wasn’t used to receiving.

Many people who are not like you and I have expressed to me that they don’t understand why I “still talk about Taylor Swift”. But Taylor was there for me— figuratively through her music and literally in the conversations we’ve had over the years— for longer than most anyone else in my life. She was there in my most formative years and I clung to her kindness and her lyrics because they made me feel safe and less alone.

The little girl in these photos clung to songs like Tied Together with a Smile and The Outside and Teardrops on my Guitar and Stay Beautiful because they made me feel like someone understood me and I wasn’t the only one out there feeling those emotions. Friends left and fathers left, but this music gave me a safe haven, a buoy to get me through.

Thank you, Taylor, for being my mentor, stand-in big sister, and music of choice for 14 years. I love you. @taylorswift