Regardless of genre, most pop, country, rap, soul, and jazz music stems from personal experiences with the all too familiar feelings of love. Whether our favorite artists are singing about being in a relationship, getting out of one, or wanting to be in one, there is likely at least one song or album out there for the average person to fashion their emotions to given their circumstance.

For the girls that grew up blaring the country-rooted pop vocals given to us by Taylor Swift, our views of love stories tend toward the more extreme end of the spectrum. Instead of the overwhelming sappy stuff, Miss Swift gave us records full of wishful revenge and various wrong-doings. This, we can agree, reflects a more realistic version of what happens in a girl’s mind after heartbreak. Not in every way, but for the most part.

They say the best revenge is happiness. They say the best thing you can do to prove that you’re better off without them is to move on, live your life and do your own thing. Move on, yes, but be happy, are you kidding? Some internal switch that had all your lights off is somehow supposed to flip on and shoot sunshine out of your ears? Yeah right.

The revenge we want is deeper than that. Not only do you want to elicit all the sadness and hurt that your heart had to face but you always want it to be worse. Taylor got this one right for sure.

Sure, it’ll hurt them to see you happy. It makes it seem like life just went on and one tiny eraser was all it took to wipe them out of it. But I think the best revenge is much more personal.

The best revenge would have to be doing everything you had planned to do without them. There was a time when you shared your goals and dreams and ambitions with that person and you planned and altered those things in a way that made them seem feasible for the both of you. So that no matter the obstacle, yours, mine, and ours would come to fruition. What better revenge than showing them you didn’t need them after all?

I guess you could say that doing what you planned is a form happiness, but I think this is the best kind. It’s not even like you have to live your life in spite of someone else but more so without that support. It’s kind of like when you learn how to ride your bike and you don’t need your dad holding onto your seat or when you can do your hair without your mom’s help. You aren’t doing those things because you hate that they have to help you, but because you don’t need them anymore.

Music helps, I 100% believe that. Doing everything you can to move on does too. Don’t feel like you have to be happy right away, though. The biggest thing is just to not let a little heartbreak knock you off your life’s path. Everything you told yourself you were going to do is still feasible without them. If anything, they’re just one less thing holding you back.