Happy 35th Birthday Taylor Swift!

I have been a Swiftie since 2006. I will never, ever forget the first time I heard "Our Song." It was after school, and as usual, I was at my best friend JenJen's (her name was Jennifer, and I don’t remember how her nickname came to be, but she’ll forever be JenJen in my head) house, and she told me I had to hear this new song. JenJen knew that I wanted to be a rockstar when I grew up. We were sitting in her computer room, and she turned on the computer speakers and pulled up the song.

The fiddle kicked in, and I was hooked.

Little did she know, JenJen handed me my role model, idol, and hero in that moment. From that moment to the current moment you are reading these words, I have been a Swiftie. That’s more than half my life at this point.

When people ask why I’m a fan, I usually say because her music has gotten me through so many things, and the usual things you hear from fans. But as Taylor and I both grow older, I’d like to think we’re both wiser as well.

I was listening to Taylor recently, and her song "Hits Different" came on. I was singing along as I always do, and the lyric "argumentative antithetical dream girl" was sung through my car speakers. In that moment, I realized a reason I love Taylor.

For the past few albums, Taylor has slowly but surely educated her fans in the most subliminal way. She’s obviously a wordsmith, but she’s started using language like the lyrics above, and I’m like, “WTF does that even mean?!”

Taylor Swift probably laughing at me trying to figure out what her lyrics mean

By challenging herself to use more of the English language, she’s also educating her fans because I know I’m sure as shit not the only person who had to look up what antithetical meant. Taylor Swift is the furthest thing from an idiot, and she knows that she has the power to have millions, if not billions, of people listen to her. Why not make them have a better command of their language as well?

Yes, I know it doesn’t mean she is single-handedly making people smarter, but there are definitely people, like myself, who have started using more sophisticated words since learning them through her music.

As I’m sure you may have seen, Taylor gave us another reason to love her yesterday. Just days after finishing her wildly successful, historic, beloved Eras Tour, she spent the day at a children’s hospital in Kansas City, handing out her books and signing them for sick kids. She usually does this on a smaller scale, but she never, ever lets the press know she’s doing this. The only pictures and videos that have come out have been from families and employees, so no, she’s not doing this for the kudos from the press.

This leads me to another reason I’m a fan of hers. For 18 years now, I’ve sat and watched her get dragged through the public mud, get tomatoes thrown at her in the town square, and basically be burned at the stake like a witch, but she’s still here, absolutely killing it. She’s still here having the most wildly successful tour ever.

No matter how many times the world tries to ruin her life, her career, and her self-esteem, she comes back harder and wiser and proves that no matter what people say about you, you are resilient and you can get through it. Taylor has been bullied by the media since day one, but here she is, almost 20 years later, at the top of her game.

Actually, this probably still isn’t even the top for her. She continues to keep shattering her own records (not literally, thank God) and beating her own history.

There are a million other reasons I could dive into as to why I love Taylor, but the final reason has been Travis. Her relationship with Travis has been so incredible to see because, as a fan of hers, I’ve seen how her relationships have been tarnished by the media and how the way the men have treated her has affected her. It’s plain as day in her lyrics. But since she’s met Travis, she’s been so much more open about her relationship and looks so much more comfortable with Travis than I’ve ever seen her look with another boyfriend.

She’s showing her fans that you really do have to wait for the right one, and it might take a while to meet him, but your invisible strings have been tied together for longer than you realize. She was never that public with her more serious relationships out of protection, but with Travis, she had him join her on stage for goodness' sake, which has never happened with another boyfriend of hers unless they were both musicians and on tour together or something. Looking at you, Joe Jonas. Yes, Taylor Swift toured with the Jonas Brothers, and no, I didn’t go, and yes, I’m still bitter as hell about it. Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.

At the end of the day, I’m just happy that my mastermind of a hero is happy. She’s on cloud 89 right now, and all I can hope for is that for her birthday, the woman who truly has everything at this point just has pure, unfiltered happiness for her birthday.

Happy 35th birthday to my hero, Taylor Alison Swift. I’m getting less mad that I didn’t get to the Eras Tour because honestly, I was there for every era. I lived through them all, which not every Swiftie can say. It was rare, I was there, I remember it all too well.

SIDE NOTE:

If it bothers you that she’s happy, take a quick second and ask yourself why it bothers you.

Honestly, anytime a celebrity makes you annoyed to the point of wanting to post hate all over social media about it, ask yourself why. Why does it bother you who a celebrity is dating? Why does it bother you when an intelligent, creative, hilarious woman finds success for herself? What about it doesn’t sit right with you?