For those that do not know, Taylor Alison Swift was born on December 13, 1989. For anyone that knows me, it is not at all surprising that I can cite this, as well countless other facts about Taylor with basic muscle memory. I get a lot of questions about what draws me to Taylor so much, and honestly I feel like it is a lot to really dive into. This article is mainly just a tribute to someone I have quite literally looked up to for the past ten years of my life, as well as a bit of an explanation for the reasons of why my love for her is so strong.

To start off, she is someone that I have grown up with. I have been to all of her tours since Speak Now, and Fearless was one of the first albums I had of hers. 'Breathe' featuring Colbie Caillat is one of the first songs of hers I remember falling in love with, and it is probably the first song of hers that had the deepest affect on my heart. Listening to her music, even as a little girl, I realized that there was something deeper to it. She was singing from her soul, something I feel like a lot of modern singers and musicians don't really do. It never really feels to me that Taylor is trying to create a "hit" because even the poppiest of her songs have a deeper, more mature message, that you really have to listen for and feel in order to understand. As she has changed, so have I, and I associate each of her areas with a different, more evolved, version of myself, which helps me to track and look at my own personal growth.

Taylor has also gotten me through some of the toughest times of my life. Specifically around RED and 1989, I was struggling. There were countless things going on around that time of my life that made me feel like I wanted to give up, but listening to her songs made me feel understood, like a piece of me was being heard through her experiences, that seemed to have the same emotions to my own, even if they were referenced in different contexts. I remember on New Years Eve seeing the Out Of The Woods music video for the first time, and seeing the lines after the song had ended on the video: "She Lost Him, But She Found Herself And Somehow That Was Everything." That has stuck with me throughout my entire life since that point, not even if necessarily to a boyfriend. Taylor has always been a reminder for me to stay strong, to not give up, to keep holding on because there is love and compassion in this world, you just have to look for it, maybe even in the most unlikely places.

Taylor is an extremely empowering individual. Through her involvement with the Me Too movement, her petition for the Equality Act along with the song 'You Need To Calm Down,' she stands for issues. She embodies feminism for me, and she encourages me to not settle, but to fight for that equality in all areas of the word.

Without getting into too many personal details, these are some of the reasons why Taylor means the absolute world to me. It is not just her music (which obviously, is iconic) that draws me to her, but her entire being and what she stands for. I respect her so much, and appreciate all of the things she has not just done for me, but all of her fans. I cannot believe that she is already turning thirty! I remeber seeing her first when I was eleven, and I know I'll be seeing her when I'm sixty. She is one of my oldest friends, someone I could always turn to in times of need, and a role model that I hope to always have.

Happy birthday, Taylor! You're so, so loved.