The Journey is Complete

It was nearly two months ago when I posted this on Threads:

The final stats on that post is 49.4K views, 1.6K hearts, and 657 comments. To be fair, many of those comments are mine. I’m one of those people who responds to every comment that is shared on my posts. It’s not always easy to keep up, but I do my best.

After this post, I started my journey. I was determined to listen to every Taylor Swift album, in order—including the Taylor’s Versions. I gave myself until the release of her latest album so that when it came out, I could enjoy the new album in real time with the rest of the Swifties.

When I started, I honestly didn’t know what to expect. As a writer, I was most interested in experiencing her songwriting. I loved the idea that she wrote all her own songs. I also wanted to see how her music evolved as she grew from a teenager to a seasoned adult.

With all the things that I experienced on this journey with her actual music, here’s what I absolutely didn’t expect. And that is the encouragement, the education (i.e. the lore behind her songs and albums), the recommendations, and quite simply, the love I received from her Swiftie community.

I was embraced from that very first post. They welcomed me into the Swiftie-verse without question. They shared their favorite songs and links to videos that went along with what album I was currently on.

And you know what that felt like? It felt like I had the world’s best hype women and men cheering me on through this. Such positivity and love in every comment they shared on my posts. The world is on fire right now, especially the United States, like, we’re in a real…mess right now. For lack of a better word and yet, listening to Taylor’s music for the first time and engaging with long-time fans and even some fans that are new like me, it was refreshing and heart-warming, and just plain amazing.

Swifties are a real community. There’s no other way to explain it. They are a community of good people joined in their common love of a brilliant musician. And they share that love with anybody who is willing to give it a chance. Even someone like me, who was never really a fan but kept an open mind through it all and immediately fell in with them.

This journey has truly been something special. And emotional! Swifties have had years to process the emotions that come with each album she releases. I experienced all that emotion in 2 months. I now have much more time to really go back and process songs and albums as I feel the need. Each of her albums truly does speak to an era in each of our lives. There is something for every person, every emotion, every stage in life with her music. I learned that when I got to her Midnights album and experienced “Bigger Than the Whole Sky” for the first time. I took a day off work just to listen to that song on repeat so I could begin the grieving process for a miscarriage I had that I never dealt with. And even with that, the Swiftie community understood. They too had an emotional reaction to that song. I don’t see how anyone couldn’t. Even without ever experiencing the loss of a child, it is a gut-wrenching song.

So, for all of the Swifties who followed me on this journey and made this experience as awesome as it was, thank you. Truly. From the bottom of my heart, thank you.

With today being the long awaited release day for the Life of a Showgirl, I have loved being a part of all the conversations on Threads about the album. I have thoughts, you have thoughts and I have SO enjoyed sharing them with you as someone who is truly a part of your community now and not just someone who is catching up. I’m with you guys! For the repeat listenings of Showgirl and all future album releases.

I went to a release party showing tonight and I was among a group of local Swifties for the first time. I bought all the supplies to make bracelets, but I actually ran out of time and couldn’t make any. But, I was gifted my first one though! As I stood outside the theater waiting to go in, decked out in my orange sequined jacket and feathery showgirl earrings, a guy who came out of the theater from the previous showing handed me a bracelet as he walked by. I wore it proudly. And 1989 is actually one of my favorite albums! So it was perfect.

I was a little nervous about wearing such a flashy jacket in public. I talk a big game online, but in person, I’m still an introverted girl at heart. But the compliments I received before the show started made me grateful that I didn’t chicken out and take it off. Once again, Swifties being Swifties made me feel great!

One of the last things I’m going to do is watch the Eras tour movie this weekend. I really want to see all these amazing songs performed “live”. That is, of course, in between listening to the new album. I’ve already gotten through it three times today and anticipate a weekend of obsessive listening.

Finally, as promised, here is a list of my top 5 albums, now that I’ve heard them all—which is really hard to do, actually. Some of my favorite songs are not on these albums. I’m going based on which albums have the most songs that resonated with me:

1. Reputation
2. 1989
3. folklore
4. evermore
5. The Tortured Poets Department
6. The Life of a Showgirl (Sorry, it’s gotta be a top 6 list. There’s no way I can cut any of 1-5 to make room for Showgirl. Six it is!)

And these are really in order of release, so the number order isn’t significant. I don’t think I can rank them according to true favorites. I think I would at least still put Reputation at the top though.

Now, here are my favorite songs. There is no possible way I can rank them, seriously. These are just pretty much the order that I first heard them. And a little mixed up at the end because I ran out of room on my paper and started writing them wherever there was space.

• Teardrops on My Guitar
• Fifteen (TV)
• Dear John (TV)
• Back to December (TV)
• Mean (TV)
• Long Live (TV)
• 22 (TV)
• All Too Well (10 minute version. I don’t even listen to the OG anymore).
• We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together (TV)
• The Lucky One (TV)
• Bad Blood (TV)
• Clean (TV)
• mad woman
• Look What You Made Me Do
• the last great american dynasty
• it’s time to go
• I can Do It With a Broken Heart
• Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?
• thanK you aIMee

Also, one final thing, please think about subscribing to my blog. I post daily but I don’t always share new posts to Threads. Check out some of my other posts to get an idea of things I write about. A lot of it has to do with mental health issues and my crusade to end the stigma around it. I share a lot about, really anything that’s important to me. As one of my closest friends said, I “don’t hold anything back”. I’d love to keep sharing it with you, my new Swiftie friends. Well, there’s that, but also I secretly want to have more subscribers and followers than my sister because I’m competitive like that. I’m not the eldest daughter, I’m the youngest and like Taylor on her new album, I am very much in my IDGAF era.

One final time, thank you Swifties. For everything. Just…everything. I love you all.