Taylor Swift

Hey, I'm Marie! To start, saying I’m Taylor Swift's biggest fan is an understatement. My whole 9th grade class knows me as the “crazy Taylor Swift obsessed girl”, and to be completely honest, I don’t mind that title one bit. Every day I wear my Speak Now necklace, 13 written on my hand, my 2 Speak Now bracelets, and on Fridays, the tee-shirt I got from her concert. My room is a whole different story. I have a Speak Now blanket, a Taylor Swift robe, a book on “Everything Taylor Swift”, and collages and pictures I have drawn/made of Taylor. I have literally a bazillion posters of her. Creepy right? Well, I will sit in grocery stores or pharmacies just looking through the magazine isle searching inside every magazine for posters of Taylor and then I buy them if it has a picture of her in it. My friends say I am crazy and have an obsession; I claim it’s a life style. What they don’t know is why I love her so much.

On October 2, 2011, I experienced my first concert- Taylor Swift's concert. I guess that’s when it kind of hit me how much her songs impacted my life. As soon as Taylor got on stage starting off the show with Sparks Fly I burst in to tears. It was like an automatic reaction. I screamed my butt of until I lost my voice. ( I couldn’t speak for 2 days afterwards) 4 people in front of me moved seats due to my excessive screaming and when Taylor Swift walked around the floor, I dove and fought my way through to her. She didn’t touch my hand, but she said “I love you” to a fan next to me, but I have always told people she said it to me. (I know, lying’s not good, but I like to believe Taylor had said that to me) Anyway, ever since then my #1 thing on my bucket list is “To Meet Taylor Swift”. I’m no one special, just another wide eyed girl who’s desperately in love with her. Hehe, see what I did there?
Anyway, I want all you Swifties to know how her songs have impacted me in so many ways. About a year ago my brother was placed into a mental hospital. 3. Different. Times. Sometimes the police would take him away because he would beat up my other brother and punch my mother. I would hide in my closet and plug my ears. I hated to see my mother in pain. She is the only person I have since my mother left my father when I was only 3 months old, leaving us with no money and no home. My aunt had bought us a house to live in and paid most of our bills because we just couldn’t make it. It’s still hard to make it and it pains me to see my mother working endless hours and coming home crying all the time because we just may never have a normal life. I myself am diagnosed with manic-depression as well as anger management and ADHD. To say the least, I can’t control my emotions quite well either. I had no one who was a true friend at the time to help me through it. I constantly would cry myself to sleep and even cry in the guidance counselor’s office at school as well. I had nothing to help me. But then this girl named Keeley Ringham, who is now my best friend, asked if I wanted to go to the Taylor Swift concert with her because all of her other friends couldn’t go and I was kind of like her last acquaintance left. After hearing Taylor's songs, something moved inside me. I had someone who listened to me, I had someone who cared, and it was Taylor Swift. Her music helped. It helped me through the troubles I had with a boy named Chris Wink. I guess you could say I was infatuated by him. He called me ugly, and said no guy would ever want me, because I mean “look at me”. I know I'm 14, and over-dramatic, but words like that never really are forgotten. I still hung on to him, hung on to every word he said, because I always held onto hope. He eventually ended up hurting me worse. The more I tried to make him like me, or at least still have him in my life, the worse things got. Have you ever heard felt your heart rip in two? I have. Because of Chris. But I turned to Taylor's songs. Cold As You, Invisible, A Perfectly Good Heart, Stay Beautiful, I’m Only Me When I’m With You, Teardrops On My Guitar, You’re Not Sorry, White Horse, Breathe, Tell Me Why, Fifteen, You Belong With Me, Superstar, Forever And Always, Jump Then Fall, Tied Together With A Smile, Hey Stephen, Love Story, The Way I Loved You, The Best Day, Change, The Other Side Of The Door, Untouchable, Come In With The Rain, Fearless, Speak Now, Mean, Dear John, Enchanted, Last Kiss, Haunted, Innocent, Never Grow Up, Long Live, Mine, Better Than Revenge, The Story Of Us, Back To December, Ours, If This Was A Movie, Superman, Sparks Fly, and Safe And Sound. (Okay, so some of those didn’t necessarily help me, I just LOVED the song.) I hope Taylor Swift realizes what an impact she have made on my life, and probably millions more with just writing her feelings and thoughts and putting them into songs. Don’t ever stop, please!

So, right now I am counting down the days until fall because I know her new album- about her crash and burn heartbreak- will be coming out. And then that means her US tour will come too. I just want to meet Taylor to thank her. To thank her for putting a light in my world, being a friend I never had, being there for me to show me that things get better, and sometimes people suck. I know one day, I will meet Taylor Swift, and I can scratch #1 off my bucket list. I will always be a Swiftie, I will remain Fearless, and I will continue to Speak Now all because of the one and only Taylor Swift.
Forever and Always, (;
Marie Danielle