Taylor Swift, a women of many cats and talents, has yet to disappoint us with her latest success, the 1989 world tour. She’s transformed her multi-million dollar music platform into a collective and cathartic therapy session. She set the scene at one of her recent performances with colored stage lighting, as she sat on chair, holding her guitar on top of a massive crane. While this description may seem intimidating, the in person experience is quite the opposite. She begins by discussing very personal experiences and immediately succeeds in getting you to develop what is commonly referred to as “the feels.”
As a witness of the Gillette Stadium crowd, I could not help but feel that I was with one of my close friends, chatting about life over coffee. She addresses the crowd and immediately dives into subjects that many of us face, such as loneliness, the unpredictability of love and our deepest insecurities. This sisterhood begins to get really inspirational, or as others like to call it, “Swiftie power.”
Her incredible power to tap into the peaks and valleys, the hopes and dreams, and the downfalls of 20-somethings is what leads me to say—Taylor is the “Carrie Bradshaw” of our generation. That may be a slightly aggressive statement, but think about this: have you ever had a problem that was not addressed in one of the shows? When girls go through bad break ups we cure ourselves with comfort food, a good cry and a few seasons of “Sex and The City.” There is an episode for everything you can expect in your twenties. But more important than all the clothes, men and cocktails, “Sex and the City” teaches us many important lessons that we need to learn as women much like Taylor does in her albums and performances.
Taylor is also living like Carrie with her new digs in New York, and her squad of famous and independently successful gals. She has become the gold standard, but let’s be honest, here— Taylor was great advice-giver even before her fame (cue “Fifteen”). As a hardcore “Swiftie” myself, I can attest that Tay Tay’s latest album was there for me last year when I was starting over as a transfer student. I picked up my things from my former school and decided to move to my own kind of New York: Newport, RI. I’ll admit when I first moved, I kind of thought I was channeling my own Taylor in a way by moving to a new town, making new friends and meeting a guy like she did, and sort of having things slowly fall into place.
At the concert when she would take her time to talk to the audience of 60,000+ fans, she had this amazing way of speaking that made it feel like she was only talking to you. Taylor is everyone’s “Carrie” even if you’ve never actually hung out with her and baked cookies or gone on road trips with her. She’s still this fabulous girl who has the power to connect with everyone on a certain level and make you want to take notes about every single word of advice that comes out of her mouth.
So there you have it, we all want to be her, or be friends with her, or maybe even both. On that night, I felt as though I was connected to the millions of listeners around the world who identified with heartache, love, power and Taylor’s resilient feminine strength. Reminiscing on this night will forever be a magical experience for me, and I can’t wait to hear as well as find out what her next big words of wisdom will be musically, and literally. But in the meantime, I will happily watch “Sex and the City” re-runs and reflect on how I can channel Carrie and Taylor in my everyday life.
