Taylor Swift Owns my Core Memories

On the night before Red (Taylors Version) was coming out, I got pretty reflective about my relationship with the queen of my life, Taylor Swift. A friend asked me who my favorite musical artist of all time was and I very quickly answered, “Taylor Swift, obviously!” But she seemed shocked. It occurred to me that maybe my friends in college don’t know that Taylor Swift literally owns my core memories. So many of my fondest moments from childhood and my teen years have Taylor Swift in them. She was literally the soundtrack to my childhood.

My first memory where Taylor Swift is present is a classic. I had a best friend who lived next door to me in the cul-de-sac. She had a karaoke machine, so I spent a lot of time over at her house practicing for my American Idol audition. There is one specific day that I remember we put on Taylor Swift’s debut album and performed every song for hours. She had a window that faced the neighborhood that had a little window seat, and that was our favorite place to perform “Cold As You.” I couldn’t have been older than 7 but was singing my heart out like Joe Jonas had just broken it. These karaoke sessions were my first introduction into Taylor Swift and really one of my first core memories.

Now let me take you back to Christmas 2008. I just got a pink Lego set and am stoked to build it. I am fully in my horse girl phase and there are multiple horse posters from the book fair on my wall. In fact, the Lego set is a farm. I’m hype enough already. Then, the next present I open is a deluxe version of Taylor Swift’s Fearless, and I just happen to own a CD player in my room. After all the presents have been opened and we’ve finished Christmas breakfast, everyone disperses to go play with all the new things. I run up to my room, put on the CD, and start building my Lego set. When I first heard the bonus songs: “Jump Then Fall,” “Untouchable,” and “Superstar”? Game over. I probably listened to these three songs on repeat until it was time to leave my room and go to a relative's house. Again, I was only 8 years old, but this was such a definitive moment in my little horse girl brain that it has become one of the first Christmases I really remember.

After the release of Taylor Swift’s Speak Now, one could say I was fully obsessed. I used to sit and watch all of her music videos on Youtube for hours, play it anytime we were in the car, and basically consume any Taylor Swift related media my 11 year old brain could handle. One afternoon my mom was picking me up from middle school, and I got in the car before either of my brothers. She asked me how I would feel if she was able to get Taylor Swift tickets. I had never been to a concert before, and I immediately said yes yes yes! She then told me she did have tickets and we were going with my best friend since childhood, Caroline, and her mom. Let the countdown begin. We made a huge deal of this concert. I finally got to get a pair of “Miss Me Jeans” and we made t-shirts. We got to the stadium about three hours early and tailgated outside Dallas Cowboys Stadium while freaking out that Taylor Swift was really in that building. That concert was one of the greatest nights of my life. I still vividly remember seeing Haunted for the first time live and freaking out. That huge bell and quick change continues to live rent free in my mind. I decided that night that I would be a Swiftie for life and go to every single one of her concerts ever.

Unfortunately, that dream did not come true. When Taylor Swift released Red, and I had learned All Too Well on my keyboard, I begged my mom to get tickets. Luck was not on our side, and we could not get tickets to the concert. In my mind I thought that she had gotten tickets and was just going to surprise me again. When the day of the concert came around and I still had not been surprised with tickets, I went to my grade’s end of school swim party. The concert was all the rage. Girls would not stop talking about how they were going, and naturally I begged them to take me. Again, no luck. Even as I was leaving the party I was waiting for my mom to surprise me. I think I lost hope when it was 7 p.m. and I still had no tickets. I was devastated. I got in the shower, blared Red, and sobbed. I mean sobbed. Like violent sobs for probably an hour. A girl at school brought me a shirt from the concert, which was nice, but I have still never gotten over the fact I did not see Red live.

Luck was in my favor for 1989, though. My friends and I were determined to get these tickets. Tickets went on sale in the middle of a school day in eighth grade, and I did not have a smartphone nor a laptop, so I was not in charge of getting these tickets. My friend Erin had to go to the bathroom at her school right at 11 a.m. and secure 7 tickets. Seems impossible, right? But God looked down on us and saw the desperation in our hearts and granted us 7 tickets. When I got the text that we got tickets, I ran to my middle school’s bathroom with my flip phone, called my friends who were attending this concert, and screamed and cried. When the day finally came, we got ready, took our pictures, wrote an incredibly thought out Instagram caption (see end of essay,) and went to the concert. Holy cow, this concert was incredible. I am sure anyone who saw it knows, but Taylor just killed it. To this day I regularly watch the 1989 live concert on Netflix just to feel something.

The 1989 concert was the last concert of Miss Swift’s that I saw. Unfortunately I did not make it to Reputation, but I look forward to LoverFolkMore fest and all whatever she decides to tour of Taylor’s Versions! What used to be karaoke in my best friend's game room has turned into listening parties of Taylor’s new albums and screaming All Too Well while driving too fast down State Highway 114. All this to say, Taylor Swift has created the soundtrack to my early life and has been a constant in my life since age 7. So, yes, Taylor Swift owns all my core memories and is my favorite artist ever.