Feeling Like My Big Sister Just Won POY

I started writing this blog when we were stuck in Turkey waiting on a broken C-17. I am finally finishing it up on our leg home from Germany and then I then waited to post it because this type of blog is so different for me to do.... Until this morning and I listened to the podcast- The Daily who published an episode about Taylor Swift. So that is my motivation for finally posting this. You can listen to the podcast episode here- https://open.spotify.com/episode/3Na4zeM7FPwNsO6egMHmKR

I'm pretty sure we are one of the luckiest generations to have grown up along side Taylor Swift. Yesterday I saw Time Magazine released Person of the Year and I felt like they got it so right. Person of the Year: Taylor Freaking Swift. I am so glad they saw her value, somehow corruption didn't intervene. She made it. She weathered the storms and come out on top. What a year she has had- one that accumulates over a decade long beautiful, challenging, and transformative journey. A path that I believe so many fans can parallel their own lives to. I know I can and I guess that is why I feel like the lucky little sister. I feel like in some way I had a part in her success, but I think that is the magic of Taylor Swift. The magic her fans feel and the connection that exists. She makes us feel seen, heard and loved. We grew up together. Songs like Fifteen and 22 felt so personal. They were intertwined with our own lives as we turned 15 and 22. So this is my tribute to her, to us. To growing up together the past decade and to continuing to rise through adversity. So here is my Taylor Swift journey and I would love to hear some of yours in the comments below!

My TS Journey

Rewind to her very first album released in 2006 with her notarious song Tim McGraw, Teardrops On My Guitar, and Should've Said No. Singing Should've Said No at the top of our lungs as we are experiencing our own heart breaks and saddness for the first time. We were so little, so new to navigating this world. We were told you're too young to have a real relationship, real pain losing a friendship or a real heart break. Yet, to us at that age, these emotions felt raw, sometimes painful and very real.  Her songs gave us the validation we couldn't find anywhere else. Then Fearless was released in 2008 (still one of my favorite albums) featuring You Belong With Me, White Horse, Fifteen, and You're Not Sorry. The song that spoke to so many of us when we were turning fifteen years old. Shortly after her album Speak Now was released. I remember the days of scrolling through my ipad nano queing up a song- most likely Never Grow Up. Feeling emotional, even at that age, just wishing time would slow down. It spoke to me in so many ways, amplifying the beauty of life and importance of connection. I listened to that song sooo many times. Then two years later her album Red was released. I felt like it was perfect timing for me. Going through my own very messy high school breakup- I listened to I Knew You Were Trouble on repeat haha! My best friend in high school Amy and I would just drive around town and to football games blarring all of her songs from this album.

After high school I still loved her music, but got caught up in the busyness of life. Just like her. I kind of put my head down and got to work. I loved her album 1989 (also probably one of my top albums) I still loved listening to her, but I definitely noticed the change in her music when she released Reputation. I was kind of taken back from the shift in her music style. She always had a very kind, pure style. This album seemed to be from someone completely different. Little did I know, my time of transitioning was coming too. The younger versions of myself were dying off at the challenges of life, the hands of cruel, insecure people, or just what it takes to survive the day to day. The pieces that survived these new challenges were learning how to navigate this world that isn't as kind to people as younger Jen once thought. Que listening to Delicate from Reputation (also on repeat). My love for her only continued to grow after watching her documentary Miss Americana when I was in Pilot Training. I was learning to navigate a highly competitve guy dominant career field basically alone. I didn't have another female in my class for a year and 1/2. I went through really tough times when girlfriends didn't want me to be friends with their boyfriends who were in my class. Who was I supposed to be friends with? I’m an extremely extroverted person. I really missed my girlfriends. I guess I was supposed to be friends with nobody. Go to class/flying for 12ish hours a day and interact with 20 guys and just keep to myself. Que her song The Man from her album Lover. I wished I would just get treated like one of the boys. That I was one of the boys. It is so frutsturating sometimes and still is. Yet, I was also learning to become more confident and find my voice. Learning that it was okay to wear pink, act like a girl and still kick the guys butt. Which I think embracing that helped me graduate #1 out of 22 guys in pilot training. After that she released folklore and evermore. They transitioned me to my love for indie/ folk music. Again her music was growing right along side me.

Through all of my growth I've realized that the magic of Taylor Swift is that she sings about the little moments. Most artists want to create the next big hit and I'm sure she wants to as well, but she still sings songs about the mundane, painful parts of life while being vulnerable and transparent. That is her magic and why younger generations are loving her too. I don't think Taylor Swift is going anywhere anytime soon. I have become so excited for the future. Imagine raising little girls in a world that still values authenticity, natural beauty, hard work and being KIND. This last year shows me that this world does exsist!  It makes me excited to raise a little girl in this Swifite world and be able to share my love for Taylor Swift as she grows to love her too. I believe there will be a different generation of females. It will be a generation filled with little girls who know their worth, they use their voices and don't back down. They wear sequin dresses, wear pink and do work. I have always been a Swifty and I am proud to be surrounded by the growing number of Swifites. It truly is a testament to the world so many of us want to see. A world of fierce females, but who are also kind, loving and accepting. A world where girls find strength in vulnerability, courage and fortitude. A world that holds a girl like Taylor Swift on a pedestal of her own- not to be compared.

There are a few things I loved about her interview that I wanted to share. She usually tends to be more private. Probably due to the never ending critism she has been under, but this interview was different. It was raw and unfiltered. You can read it here- https://time.com/6342806/person-of-the-year-2023-taylor-swift/ Like it mentioned in the interview, she wasn't really being interviewed as much as it felt like she was the narrator of the story being told. It was refreshing for once. Here are two of my favorite snipets:

 “Do not kill the part of you that is cringe—kill the part of you that cringes.”“Yes!” she exclaims. “Every part of you that you’ve ever been, every phase you’ve ever gone through, was you working it out in that moment with the information you had available to you at the time. There’s a lot that I look back at like, ‘Wow, a couple years ago I might have cringed at this.’ You should celebrate who you are now, where you’re going, and where you’ve been.”

This! Something I think most of us battle every day. Looking back at different parts of our lives thinking what the heck was I doing. We have to embrace and accept this part of our journey. The snippet from below is also from the interview. It is about the interviewer and his thoughts on things Taylor had said.

“But then I think, Who am I to challenge it, if that’s how she felt? The point is: she felt canceled. She felt as if her career had been taken from her. Something in her had been lost, and she was grieving it. Maybe this is the real Taylor Swift effect: That she gives people, many of them women, particularly girls, who have been conditioned to accept dismissal, gaslighting, and mistreatment from a society that treats their emotions as inconsequential, permission to believe that their interior lives matter.”

Taylor you are humble, giving and kind. You appreciate your fan base and we feel that. Just like so many people have said and I can't agree more- we chose the right person to be famous. I wasn't able to go to the Era's tour this past year because I couldn't get the time off of work, but next year! I'm doing it. I'm just like a little sister so incredibly proud of their big sister- no competition, but only genuine feelings of love, appreciation and gratitude for the path you have paved.

Jenny Lou

#taylorswift #erastour #personoftheyear