Dear Taylor Swift,
You don’t know me but I’ve been a huge fan of yours since you started releasing music. From youth group trips to the roller rink when they played “Tear Drops On My Guitar” to many a memorial day rocking out to your Speak Now album with one of my childhood best friends, I have many memories associated with your songs.
My favorite memories however happen to be with the one I love.
Just as you too found it difficult to find the token song that you could share with your special someone, thus penning “Our Song”, I too had a difficult time figuring out what our song would be when I had my very first love interest.
Cristian and I started out going on dates to the local tennis court when were were around 16-years-old. I somehow managed to trick him into thinking I was an all-star player… Joke’s on him. We would often take water breaks simply because he could not keep up with me. (Imagine a poor kid running back and forth to the surrounding tennis courts because I couldn’t keep our ball going in our delegated boxes…) I began sharing my rad tunes with him on my little pink iPod Nano, and eventually we found a mutual love of your music.
We were young, awkward, and very much in love. Pretty much how we are now. We had never held hands, and it was easy to tell Cristian was a bit nervous around me. All of that changed when the lyrics “Do you remember we were sitting there by the water?” came melodiously through the shared headphones. Cristian faked a yawn, and casually put his arm around me. Granted since I’m so petite there were a few moments of awkward “Umm, where do you put your hand…?”
Cristian laughed and pointed out that we were sitting by our water bottles, and that he put his arm around me for the first time.
We found our song.
Years passed, you dropped many more albums. We sang, we cried, we danced. 22 became our summer jam, and we would blast it in the car with our friends on the way to my friend’s cabin. It still is a signature song, and I listened to it all day on my birthday last month.
Then something magical happened. The 1989 Era began.
Cristian and I fell in love with the album, and I surprised him at Christmas with tickets to your concert. We were up in the nosebleeds of Soldier Field Stadium but we didn’t care. We danced and sang our hearts out. You surprised the crowd with Andy Grammer, our wrists lit up in time to the music, and we fell in love all over again. We were the New Romantics
A few months after your concert Cristian took me back to the tennis courts where we had our first date. He got down on one knee, and asked if I would marry him.
It brought me back to that moment when we first listened to Mine. Had you not penned those lyrics, who knows when Cristian would have worked up the nerve to finally put his arm around me. When I think of Sparks Fly, I wonder what song I would have blasted on my way home after I had my first kiss. Whenever I hear All Too Well I pause and think about what song I would have listened to during our relationship rough patch had it not made it on your album. Each time I hear Shake It Off I ponder what song I would have picked as one of my life anthems. And every single time I hear New Romantics it brings me back to the night of your concert, one of the best nights Cristian and I ever shared.
So Taylor, I hear you’re into the wedding crashing scene. So if you’re reading this, please consider crashing our wedding. It’s June 17th, 2017. Our relationship was shaped so much by your lyrics and we would love you to share in our special day. We can’t wait to see you there.
xoxo,
Maddie
p.s. Everyone should share this so Taylor eventually sees it.
