littleoneblockwideworlds

[littleoneblockwideworlds]

Like many people, the first Taylor Swift song I ever heard was Tim McGraw. Now, I personally had never listened to anything by Tim McGraw but I never needed to in order to appreciate these lyrics. As a kid, I associated the lyrics of Tim McGraw with a person's favorite things. As I grew up and became an adult, I continued to see and feel more about the words beyond such a simple meaning. Tim McGraw looks back on a teenage love lost and the healing process one goes through when you are young and in love and then have your heart broken. For me, "I hope you think of me" is said in fondness—like, "look at us then and look at where we are now." That teenage love that was so sweet and full of subtle adventure and excitement of something new. Even though it ended in hurting, the pain never lasts. For me, Tim McGraw became a song I listened to all throughout my childhood and then teenage years. Listening became a cathartic experience allowing me to move on beyond the naive crushes and romances of adolescence and learn to look back in fondness at the happiness shared with someone who was right for me at the moment in time.

[littleoneblockwideworlds]

My love for all things Taylor Swift actually begins much earlier than her radio debut. I wish I could pinpoint the exact timeframe, but really this love I have for music was instilled in me from the moment I was born by my own personal country music star.

My PaPa could have gone on to play big shows all over the US and maybe even the world if he had chosen a different path in life. Instead, he chose to serve his nation and then settle down with my grandmother and work until his second and final retirement in a very small, very rural Midwest town. Throughout it all, he never lost his passion for music. I can't think of a single instrument he has picked up that he hasn't been able to play—piano, banjo, harmonic, upright bass—there are more, but the most memorable has always been the guitar. My PaPa has been playing guitar since he was a teenager and he kept it up with him all throughout his military service. After returning home, he kept on playing at church every Sunday and anytime he could with his friends. When I was born, he would play for me and teach me the words to children's songs and church hymns and his favorite country songs. I never quite caught on to the guitar like he and I would have liked, but my voice quickly became my instrument.

By the time Taylor Swift appeared in my life, I was already belting out songs with my PaPa and singing next to my grandma and aunts in the church choir all summer long.

[littleoneblockwideworlds]

Reflecting and Returning

I have not been on Tumblr since creating this account back in middle school somewhere around 10 years ago. Taylor Swift consumes many of my waking thoughts—her music, the Eras Tour content that perpetually exists on my social media, her continuous commitment to fighting for what is good and right in the world, and most recently, how this love I have for this remarkable woman has grown.

I have revived my seldom used Tumblr from the early 2010s because I believe this is the best place for me to exercise some creative freedom to express the emotions I have for Taylor and those brought to the surface by her music. I have never once met Taylor Swift, but I share a deep connection with her music—music that has truthfully helped to raise me to become the woman I am today. 

Anything I write, I write for myself. If someone out there is this world can gain something from this journey, well that will just be a beautiful bonus courtesy of the internet.