The first time I heard Taylor Swift, now, iconic for her young love stories, through song, I was 12-years-old. Yes, 12. The song was Tim McGraw, and I was just, a sixth grader in love with the idea of being in love. Through the years, this admiration for love has diminished, but my love for TayTay has not.

Many purport: “Why do you like Taylor Swift? She is crazy.” But, we shouldn’t be inquiring why we go crazy; we should be inquiring why we don’t. Taylor Swift is not crazy; she simply, says what all of us are thinking, without filtering the words to create a statement, acceptable by society. Taylor Swift develops music, with emotional declarations so true, its listeners cannot help, but to love it.

I’m sure, when you opened this article, you expected to read transparent lines, such as, “We Are Never, Ever, Ever Getting Back Together,” and “You Belong With Me.” That IS what you were expecting, right? Well, I am no regular Taylor Swift fan; oh, no. I am a super fan.

These quotes, while lesser known than the aforementioned, have asked me to tap into feels I didn’t know I had, as have journeyed through loving love, hating love, admiring love, losing love, and being in love.

1. “‘Cause you know, I love the players; and you love the game.”
2. “Go and tell your friends that I’m obsessive and crazy; that’s fine. I’ll tell mine that you’re gay.”
3. “Someday you will wake up and smell the break-up, realize that we won’t make up; it didn’t go the way ya planned.”
4. “You look like bad news. I gotta have you. I gotta have you.”
5. “So, he calls me up, and he’s like: ‘I still love you,’ and I’m like, I just, I mean, this is exhausting, ya know?”
6. “All you are is mean, and a liar, and pathetic, and alone, in life.”
7. “Could’ve loved you all my life, if you hadn’t left me waiting in the cold.”
8. “It’s the first kiss; it’s flawless, really something. It’s fearless.”
9. “So, if you’re coming my way, just don’t.”
10. “All those other girls, well, they’re beautiful, but would they write a song, for you?”
11. “None of us thought that was going to end that way.”
12. “Back then, I swore I was going to marry him, someday, but I realized some bigger dreams of mine.”
13. “Say you’ll remember me, standing in a nice dress, staring at the sunset.”
14. “Mmm, I can’t help myself.”
15. “I haven’t thought about you and I. There’s no you and I.”
16. “Oh, my God. Look at that face; you look like my next mistake.”
17. “Like any true love, it drives you crazy.”
18. “He’s the song, in the car, I keep singing. Don’t know why I do?”
19. “I’m still alive, but black and blue.”
20. “I took a chance. I took a shot. And you might think I’m bulletproof, but I’m not.”
21. “Boys only want love if it’s torture.”

And, last, but not least, in honor of my twenty-second year:

22. “I don’t know, but I’m feelin’ 22. Everything will be alright, if you keep me next to you. You don’t know about me, but I’ll bet you want to. Everything will be all right, if we just keep dancin’ like we’re 22.”

Stigma aside. Taylor Swift aside. Above, you will find some of the rawest, most organic, and simply honest, words I have ever heard. As a millennial, I know it is a fad to deny any type of connection to Taylor Swift's art, but it was what was on the radio, as I drove for the first time, alone in a car, to school. It was the CD I played when my first boyfriend and I broke up. It was the music on my iPod, when I received my college acceptance letter. It was what was blaring from my Macbook, as I completed my Senior college research papers. Taylor Swift is not just, art, but a way of life.

#I<3TayTay #Unashamed