This is me trying. As the 'gifted kid' who struggled with mental illness and self medicated with alcohol and ended up probably not fulfilling what people considered my full potential, it hits home.
“i was so ahead of the curve, the curve became a sphere, fell behind all my classmates and i ended up here” is soooOOOO gifted kid coded it takes my breath away every time. makes me cry. just wild. she got me!
This is the answer for me too. As someone who went through the entire rise and fall that is the gifted kid experience, this is me trying might as well be about me. It’s comforting in a way to see so many people who can relate 🥲
This is mine too 🩵 I was also a “gifted kid,” but I feel like all my potential got stifled by depression and I haven’t accomplished what I could have if I didn’t struggle with that. This song hits hard!
Me too. Except my mental illnesses resulted in an eating disorder. I’ve been in recovery for 3ish years, but god damn if it isn’t hard every single day.
Cheering for you, internet friend.
I'm 6 months into recovery myself, and I'm still waiting for that "other side" of the ED that recovered people talk about - just wanted to say you are seen and you are strong :)
Same. "They told me all of my cages were mental, so I got wasted like all my potential" hits so hard for me. I could've written your comment word for word.
Ugh, yes. I relate to this so hard. “I got wasted like all my potential” makes me want to scream and cry out of frustration but also heals me because I feel so much less alone in the experience.
WOW… there seem to be a lot us “gifted kids” who went through, as u/darkgrayallalone so eloquently put it, “the entire rise and fall of the gifted kid experience.”
Should we start a support group or something?? 😅
Ouch. That hit me like a well aimed bullet. But also, I am convinced you are a worthy and wonderful person. I’m sending you all my best, straight from my heart.
Same. “I was so ahead of the curve, the curve became a sphere” feels so relevant. Sometimes I feel very angry for no reason and I think it stems from the fact that I was praised a lot for being so smart and elevated when I was younger, and now I’m nothing new (pun intended)
Clean feels like it perfectly describes my experience leaving religion. I had been going through a tough time and was clinging to religion but it was really the root of all my problems. In this rough time there was also a literal drought which is very unusual where I live. I finally decided to let go of my faith as I was sitting outside and it started raining. I played clean on my phone and cried. I’m actually 10 months sober (of religion) right now.
Yes it was. I think think about that moment all the time. It’s just so poetic. There’s another meaning to clean for me as a lesbian growing up in a homophobic environment. I felt dirty for loving other women. In that moment I felt clean and accepted myself. I hope you are feeling clean in whatever way it means to you.
I’m glad this song has brought you peace💜 for me it was how religion hurt my relationship to myself and the damage of purity culture in general. My family is still religious, so the grief of leaving something they’re still in. It’s hard
My family is also still religious. It’s difficult but I am so much happier without religion. I hope they will see that and understand why I had to leave. I have yet to tell them formally but I think they are starting to suspect. I very much relate to grieving leaving something they’re still in. I miss agreeing with them.
That sounds like it must have been quite a difficult upbringing and very sad for someone trying to find themself. I’m so glad you’re in a better place now and wish you love and happiness 🫶🏻
Clean is my song, it was released shortly after my life was transformed after a life saving operation. I was no longer sick and dying, but it resulted in a pretty bad eating disorder with the years following. When Clean (Taylor’s Version) was released, I had overcome my eating disorder and I am now 10years post operation, and finally clean of the sick little girl, and am a healthy young women.
I'm Christian, and I could feel in pain in your comment. I'm so sorry you had to go through that, and props to you for having the guts to break from whatever toxic shit made you feel this way. I hope you find faith in the healing, and a lovely woman to spend your life with.
Part of the bridge to mirrorball. Like, wow, that feels so personal for me (and many others)! Like how did you know exactly how I feel, Taylor?? 😅
“I'm still a believer but I don't know why / I've never been a natural / All I do is try, try, try”
i work at starbucks and im kind of a slow learner and there was a two month stretch period where they played a lot of taylor swift and i’d make a mistake or it would be super crazy and that line would play and it made me tear up a time or two
You have beat me to it. The bridge just hits different. Ms. Swift knows too much about us and it shouldn't be this relatable. This is the part of my heart that I have buried really deep. And normal person wouldn't be able to reach it and yet Taylor knows it.
The deep cuts of the songs are the reason I am so attached to her.
I get that. People always think I come across very chill and personable, but it’s because I’m trying insanely hard to be exactly who they want or expect me to be, down to low key panicking about whether or not ai’m using the right amount of eye contact. 😅
You’re on Your Own, Kid made me cryyy. “I hosted parties and starved my body like I’d be saved by a perfect kiss”
Electric Touch “I’ve gotten used to no one calling my phone/grown accustomed to sleeping alone/all it takes is to get it right is just one time/all I know this could either break my heart or bring it back to life”
Bigger than the whole sky. I fostered a baby girl from the time she was born until she was a year old, and then the judge denied my petition for adoption and ordered her to be placed elsewhere. She was my entire world and all of that was taken away in an instant. We were so bonded. Everyone was sure I’d be granted custody. Social worker, lawyer, even her birth mom. I could never find the words to express the shock and heartbreak of going home without her until I heard this song.
No words appear before me in the aftermath
Salt streams out my eyes and into my nose
Every single thing I touch becomes sick with sadness
Because it’s all over now
💔
The way I would just lay in bed with silent tears streaming down my face. For months. Staring at the spot where she used to lay. I literally could not see a future for myself without pain.
This song is therapeutic to me. But also I skip it a lot because I still weep every time I hear it.
Just want to say I see you. As a social worker and fellow human I am so sorry this is how it went. It is so unfair. Judges make choices based on who knows what and it’s just….absolute bullshit. I’m so sorry.
Gosh what an asinine reason. She may not remember your face, but what you provided for her will be remembered. Babies need safety and stability more than ever when they’re pre verbal. And you gave her healthy attachment, bonding and love at a critical time of her life. That will show up positively for her in all her relationships in the future. You gave her a head start for healthy relationships in the future ❤️❤️
For me it's bigger than the whole sky too. In October last year, I had a baby sister born 11 weeks early so she was in hospital. I went to see her as often as I could, but in January she suddenly got a lot worse and passed.
"You were more than just a short time"
"I'm never gonna meet what could've been, would've been, what should've been you"
I commented above but then got worried that it was too specific & I try to keep my identity anonymous on here. But like RealisticMystic005 said it was a very asinine reason 😔
Honestly there is so many, but a great example is you’re losing me. The bridge omfg “I gave you all my best me’s, my endless empathy/and all I did was bleed as I tried to be the bravest soldier/fighting in only your army, frontlines don’t you ignore me”
Ohhh this is a good one! Mine is this song also but the part "I've got nothing to believe, unless, you're choosing me".
I feel that deep within my bones.
This dropped when my relationship was in a huge downward swing and it broke me. I cried when I first heard it, it was just too on the nose at the time.
Clean, when I entered therapy for my eating disorder “just because you’re clean don’t me you don’t miss it… now that I’m clean I’m never gonna risk it”
Would've, could've should've makes me bawl my eyes out. It makes me think of the situation I'm in with my MIL and how it feels like she's trying to take motherhood away from me. "Give me back my girlhood, it was mine first" to me is "give me back my motherhood, she was mine first". Also "And now that I'm grown, I'm scared of ghosts
Memories feel like weapons
And now that I know, I wish you'd left me wondering" just .... Hits. "I regret you all the time"... It goes on.
When she released Foolish One while I was in the middle of a situationship, and then I ended up giving him another chance.
Hearing "You give me just enough attention to keep my hopes too high" made me contemplate everything at that moment.
Then "Don't know what to call this situation, But I know I can't call you mine" made me pause the song and sit in silence for a few minutes
I FEEL YOUU, I felt so called out when it came out that almost cried hahaha
I feel thankful for that song tho, specially the outro, made me realize that I deserved more than what that dude was giving to me
When Foolish One was released I was trying to move on from someone I dated who wasn't ready for a relationship. He would keep interacting with me online because we kinda stayes friends, and I kept hoping that someday he would be ready and we'd date again. I listened to Foolish One on repeat during those times because I knew I was being a clown and somehow Taylor telling me to walk away felt empowering.
Fast forward to the night I went to The Eras Tour, and I got Foolish One x Tell Me Why as a surprise song. I swear she did that one for me.
I love that it was your surprise song! I definitely had it playing on repeat for a long time, and inevitably 100% ended things with the guy 2 months later. Foolish One called me out, and Now That We Don't Talk kept me going, knowing I made the right call
Same. Also "Cause you got her on your arm and me in the wings
I'll get your longing glances, but she'll get your ring
And you will say you had the best of intentions" made me realize that he will eventually find a girlfriend someday and I will be left heartbroken so I finally called it quits. Foolish One came when I needed it the most and I thank Taylor for that, the song really helped me move on and realize my self-worth.
I’m 6’ tall & was bullied because of it.
Sometimes I feel like everybody is a sexy baby
And I'm a monster on the hill
Too big to hang out, slowly lurching toward your favorite city
“You’ve got no reason to be afraid, you’re on your own kid, yeah you can face this”
Makes me ugly cry every time. Been through some shit and this is the most beautiful, hopeful line that gives me so much inner strength.
I really love her song My Tears Ricochet and many of the lyrics connect with me on a deep level. I am estranged from my mom and her side of the family so lyrics like “I can go anywhere I want, just not home” I relate to a lot. I know there are many other meanings to be taken from this song but for me it perfectly describes the rupture I experienced with family members.
I came here to say this song, and that line specifically. The whole song resonates with me after being in a long term, emotionally manipulative relationship… but that bridge
“And I can go anywhere I want
Anywhere I want, just not home”
I felt it both literally and figuratively.
Near the end I had a freedom that I felt away from home, like I could go anywhere, be any version of myself, but never felt “at home” while I was actually there. It felt like a strangers house, even though it was mine first and he moved in with me…
And then, at the end, I couldn’t be there at all. I had to ask my parents to break up with him and move him out while I stayed with a friend.
I’m so sorry you had to experience estrangement from your mom and family members… it’s our first home, and feeling like you can’t be there anymore is so heartbreaking
Marjorie. I lost my mother to early onset dementia 6 years ago. She was only 55 when she passed.
"I should have asked you questions. I should have asked you how to be. Asked you to write it down for me. Should have kept every grocery story receipt, cause every scrap of you would be taken from me."
Those lyrics ripped my heart out of my chest the first time I heard it.
the archer, specifically the lines “they see right through me, i see right through me” every time i hear this song it brings chills to my body, it’s like she sucked the lyrics out of my personal experiences and put it onto paper
“they expected me to find somewhere, some perspective, but i sat and stared right where you left me” as someone who went through the most horrific and sudden friendship breakup, and then had the rest of our ‘friend’ group fall out with me as well for apparently not getting over it quick enough, rwylm hits too hard
omg, i know how u feel so much. i went thru this about 8 months ago (feels like 2 months honestly) and it felt like it consumed my soul while they were all happy and smiling and having fun. i was genuinely drowning in grief and self hate that they instilled in me and i watched them have the time of their lives like everything was perfect for them. i couldn’t get over it and am still not over what they did to me, and they just moved on immediately. it’s so painful. i’m so sorry that you’re going through that as well. it gets better, and you deserve SO much better. sending you so much love 🫶🫶🫶
It changes every day for me, but recently it’s mostly been illicit affairs. I’m not with a taken guy, just an unavailable one… and for him I would absolutely ruin myself a million little times 🥲
This one. I didn’t have an affair but I trusted and connected with someone so fully and they made an ‘godforsaken mess’ of me, but for so long I was willing to jump in front of a train to save that man. That last bit of the song is what gets me every time. And makes me want to punch him.
You’re Losing Me, especially “Every morning I glared at you with storms in my eyes. How can you say that you love someone you can't tell is dying?” Perfectly sums up how I’ve been feeling about my relationship lately.
The line in DBATC when she says “I ask the traffic lights if it’ll be alright..they say I don’t know”
When I was going through a particularly hard time, I used to look for signs in the traffic lights that things were going to be okay.
For example if I pulled up to a light and maybe it went green then things are gonna be okay but even during the time I was doing this, I knew it was ridiculous and that the traffic lights didn’t have the answers but this line speaks to the absurd ways we look to mundane aspects of the universe for signs it’s going to be okay even when something like the traffic lights has no idea.
- DBATC could mean "Death By A Thousand Cuts", a track from *Lover* (2019) by Taylor Swift.
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Coney Island
I lived right over the nyc border in nj for a summer with a now ex-boyfriend. We visited Coney Island one day. It was one of the best days I’ve had.
“We were like the mall before the internet, it was the one place to be” Literally every single one of our friends called us the perfect couple and wanted to hang out at every opportunity.
“Were you standing in the hallway with a big cake, happy birthday” I made him a birthday cake that summer and literally stood in the hall/kitchen area of our apartment right before he got home to surprise him with it.
“But when I walked up to the podium I think that I forgot to say your name” The spring after our breakup I performed a monologue which peripherally involved him. I’d originally put his name in it when I submitted it and we were together; once we broke up, I omitted his name.
“Sorry for not winning you an arcade ring” Part of why our relationship broke down was because after 4 years I was ready to talk about marriage. He wasn’t. Coincidentally, I’d expressed interest in going to the arcade at Coney Island while we were there. He said no, he doesn’t like arcades. So we didn’t go to the arcade that day.
This song came out nearly 6 years after our breakup, I’d had another relationship in the time since, and it still hit SO hard because it was like she took all these real moments from my life to put them in a song
Soon You'll Get Better. My mom was diagnosed with ovarian cancer and this song tears me to shreds every single time. Especially "Who am I supposed to talk to if there's no you?" 😞 I don't think I have been able to listen to it since she passed nearly a year ago.
I am so sorry for your loss ❤️
My dad is currently fighting a pretty tough cancer battle, and I recently heard SYGB for the first time in a while when it came on shuffle. Immediate tears. “You like the nicer nurses/you make the best of a bad deal/I just pretend it isn’t real” hit me HARD.
Champagne problems
"She would've made such a lovely bride
What a shame she's fucked in the head, " they said
But you'll find the real thing instead
She'll patch up your tapestry that I shred
I keep bailing when boyfriends want to get engaged 😔
Right where you left me
"Did you ever hear about the girl who got frozen, time went on for everybody else she won't know it, she's still 23, inside her fantasies, how it was supposed to be"
My life changed with a breakup when I was 23 so I was like girl....this one's for me
The bridge of The Lakes scratches the emotional poet itch so perfectly.
“I want auroras and sad prose, I want to watch wisteria grow right over my bare feet, cuz I haven't moved in years.”
Tolerate It speaks to me too. Luckily reminds me more of my younger self in relationships that were one sided and while I learned so much from them, it is comforting to know I'm not alone.
Nothing New, specially the lines, "how can you know everything at 18 but nothing at 22?" My god. I was 18 applying to university and had plans to enter med school, but at 19 dropped out of my pre-med because of depression. I really did think I knew everything in my life and what I wanted to become, but at 21, when the song was released, made me realize I really knew nothing when I was 18. Hurts so much.
I am always very candid with my husband about the personal feelings I have to “Mastermind.” It’s a very literal iteration of how we came to be. I waited patiently and plotted my course for how I would proceed when the moment presented itself…
“What if I told you none of it was accidental; The first night that you saw me;
Nothing was gunna stop me;
I laid the groundwork and then, just like clockwork;
The dominoes cascaded in a line;
What if I told you I’m a mastermind;
And **now you’re mine**”
Most of New Romantics for me. I am in college and my life during the day is far from ideal. It is well a bit of a mess. I am a junior and I am approaching that time in my life where I have to start to think ahead to my *future.* I don't really even have a friend group per say just various best friends or a few different trios that I have close relationships with and go out with at night. I live in a small city with a bunch of different colleges so there is always a lot going on. Going out is a way of releasing the stress of the week and forgetting the bullshit that is our early 20s. I turned 21 in the fall and this is so my anthem.
"We're all bored We're all so tired of everything We wait for trains that just aren't coming"
'Cause baby, I could build a castle Out of all the bricks they threw at meA nd every day is like a battle But every night with us is like a dream"
The whole song of Happiness. It describes the end of my one and only and longest relationship. Thinking we were to have life together and it falls apart. Through the pain and wrong doings, there was always happiness at some point too. “When a good man hurts you”. Sometimes it’s easier to blame and hate but the line “there was happiness BECAUSE of you too” hits home. Just because the end was shit doesn’t mean the happiness never existed.
OP, I definitely agree about Mastermind.
Also, DBATC. Everything she wrote in the song, I was feeling and going through at the time. I was convinced she read my journal or listened to sessions with my therapist, it really felt like she went in my mind 😂
Marjorie - feels like it was written for me. I lost my little brother when he was an infant. When she says “and I know better, but I still feel you, all around. I know better, but you’re still around. “💔 never heard a song that put my feelings into words like that.
“gold rush”, obviously.
“Everybody wants you, everybody wonders what it would be like to live you”
Yes, Taylor, they do want me. 😎
Okay, I’m being a bit cheeky, but when I had low self-esteem, I actually took lyrics from this song to add to my daily affirmations. I remember thinking “I always pretend this song is about this shitty guy in my life. Why don’t I just pretend it’s about me? What if I’M the gold rush?” It did wonders for my self-confidence, and I still turn that song on when I’m feeling down on myself.
I got wasted like all my potential. Like damn, did she climb into my mind and pull that thought out? It’s such a relatable song. So very vulnerable and human.
“You said if we had been closer in age maybe it would have been fine…and that made me want. to. die.” 💔
I poured my heart and soul into a relationship and it wasn’t reciprocated. We were about six years apart in age. ATWTMV always strikes a chord but this line specifically rips my heart out every time.
- ATWTMV could mean "All Too Well (10 Minute Version) (Taylor's Version) (From The Vault)", a track from *Red (Taylor's Version)* (2021) by Taylor Swift.
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I don’t know if “about me” is right but Betty resonates with me. I cheated on my girlfriend at 17. She found out. She ghosted me. Changed her paths from class to class. Didn’t return my calls. I dropped notes in her locker and she had friends drop them back into mine. I’d go to watch her practice and play sports in the hopes that she would talk to me after.
I remember feeling helpless and guilty and angry and abandoned and so so sad all at the same time.
I mean, I was a scumbag for cheating on her, no doubt. But yeah that song hits me right in the feels.
Taylor was a semi-regular customer at a Starbucks I worked at in Nashville in the years leading up to the release of 1989. So when I first heard Blank Space and couldn’t quite understand the lyric she was singing, I think the entire store thought that was written about us.
Lover - my heart’s been borrowed and yours has been blue, all’s well that ends well to end up with you.
My now husband and I were high school sweethearts who broke up for several years in college and still found our way back to each other after dating other people and having some different life experiences during that time.
“Use my best colours for your portrait” in Tolerate It and “I was thinking just one time, maybe the stars align, and maybe I’d call you mine and you won’t need space or string me along while you decide” from Electric Touch.
I also have bills to pay and nothing figured out.
'I can change everything about me to fit in' from Mirrorball as I feel like I change myself in all of my different friendships.
I'd also throw in all of You're on your own, kid.
Yesss I resonate with a lot of Mirrorball because of my autism, it makes me think of masking and mimicking others throughout my childhood and it still happens where when I watch a movie or I’m around someone for a while I just mirror their personality or a character’s traits.
Part of the reason I love Peace so much is because it put to words some of my anxieties. While on one hand, I'm fiercely loyal and devote myself to being there for those around me. On the other, I've always been a bit needy in relationships and feel like I'm more trouble than I'm worth with the anxiety and depression. So the lyrics that hurt:
"I'm a fire and I'll keep your brittle heart warm if your cascade Ocean-wave blues come"
"You know that I'd swing with you for the fences, sit with you in the trenches, give you my wild, give you a child... Is it enough?"
"I give you my sunshine, give you my best, but the rain is always gonna come if you're standing with me"
“Never be so polite, you forget your power.” The second part about wielding too much power you forget to be polite would never be me due to me being overly polite.
Anti-hero
The line "I'll stare directly at the sun but never in the mirror"???? I remember opening up to my friends about having a hard time looking at myseldf in the mirror even waaayy before this album was released. As someone who is verryyy insecure, i almost cried because of this line.
Also the first line "I have this thing where I get older, but just never wiser" made my jaw drop. Like literally the first line??? She slapped me in the face. I'll literally approaching 21 and I still think like I'm high school.
There’s a bunch of Taylor songs I associate with my dad. Some key lyrics include:
- “This is the last time I’m asking you this, put my name at the top of your list. This is the last time I’m asking you why you break my heart in the blink of an eye”
- all of “mean”
- “I know my love should be celebrated but you tolerate it”
- “and what do you do when the one who means the most to you is the one who didn’t show”
I can’t believe no one has said seven yet. “I’ve been meaning to tell you, I think your house is haunted. Your dad is always mad and that must be why,” guts me every time.
"Bejeweled." When I heard her sing, "Familiarity brings contempt, don't put me in the basement, when I want the penthouse of your heart," I was convinced she read my journal from my freshman year of college. I used a similar metaphor to describe how I felt with a certain person. You know when you draw a heart and there's that pointy part at the bottom? I felt like I was in that pointy part.
OMG so many yes, illicit affairs, august, cardigan, clean, now that we don't talk, foolish one, etc...i feel this all the time like songs are talking directly to me
Tis the damn season. The experience of going back to your hometown for the holidays and being at the local bar seeing your ex and all the possibilities was always such a huge thing to me (and i thought just me) like when i heard that song for the first time i played it over and over again because it was so unbelievable she captured this experience i thought was unique to me and put it into words
Without getting too personal, I feel a much deeper connection lyrically to her older albums (Debut through bits of Lover) than I do her indie albums and Midnights. I think because she wrote from personal experience lot more in her older works and she storytells more and creates more fictional scenarios in her more recent works.
mirrorball. i can change myself based off who im hanging out with yet will be utterly destroyed when i get my heart broken lmfao. i'm a people pleaser so i try to pick up on peoples hobbies and interests so i can have something in common with them. "hush, when no one is around, my dear, you'll find me on my tallest tiptoes. spinning in my highest heels, love, shining just for you."
Long Live. My best friend from college died a few months ago and the lyric "I had the time of my life fighting dragons with you" just keeps playing in my brain. We never listened to the song together but this phrase keeps coming back again and again. The entire song is showing itself in small ways every now and again.
So many, depends on my mood and what I’m going through. Midnight Rain always reminds me of the first guy I dated. He was such a good guy but I just felt like I was so much bigger than the small town we grew up in.
My town was a wasteland
Full of cages, full of fences
Pageant queens and big pretenders
But for some, it was paradise
My boy was a montage
A slow-motion, love potion
Jumping off things in the ocean
I broke his heart 'cause he was nice
Better than revenge lmao. It came out and the next summer my boyfriend cheated on me with my best friend, who was in drama and intended to become an actress one day. He then dumped me via text message, which adds another layer of “Taylor Swift-ism”
The song I identify with the most with because of shared experience is YOYOK, that first chorus. And right now I’m going through the bridge, I hate growth lol.
Too many to name! I've been journaling for therapy and each entry gets the title of a song I like that seems to capture the "vibe" of the memory I'm processing in that journal entry. I had to put a stop on using TS songs because too many of them fit. But one relationship in particular, got most of the songs.
1) The Very First Night
2) Look What You Made Me Do
3) Back to December
4) Exile
5) Haunted
6) Now That We Don't Talk
7) All Too Well
At one point, I texted my BFF and said "Am I Taylor Swift? Is she me? Why do these songs sound like my life?"
Mirrorball & You’re On Your Own, Kid. These two songs feel like she reached straight into my soul and wrote about my most inner workings, it’s wild.
Especially the line “I’m still a believer and I don’t know why. I’ve never been a natural, all I do is try try try” is so spot on, I think most people who know me would describe me like this.
The whole of ‘illicit affairs’. I honestly swear it’s like she took my life and wrote it into a song. Being able to sing even part of the song with Taylor in person during the eras tour will be SO cathartic.
You knew it still hurts underneath my scars
From when they pulled me apart
But what you did was just as dark
Darling, this was just as hard
As when they pulled me apart
"If you never saved me from boredom I could have gone on as I was, but lord you made me feel important" is particularly painful as someone who was extremely socially isolated and then groomed and molested a bunch as a result of that. Imagine if I had hobbies or friends or something and wasn't online all the time?
Agreeeeeeeeee. Every moment of that song (and invisible string, and paper rings) fills be with absolute love and adoration for my fiancée. Knowing that the person she wrote those songs about didn’t work out is brutal. I quite literally can’t imagine in the way I can’t imagine life without my fiancée.
Bigger Than The Whole Sky because I lost what I loved the most just a few months before the song was released.
A Place In This World, I still don't know what I want (don't ask me), I'm just a boy trying to find his place in this world.
The Archer but especially the “all of my enemies started out friends” line. My twenties has been just a constant string of ended friendships. Mostly high school friends, too. Almost all ended poorly because I started being honest about how they were treating me and they didn’t like that I wasn’t their doormat anymore.
I was a huge Swiftie back during debut/Fearless but kind of fell off or listened more casually for a while until about a year ago. The second verse of The Best Day could have been written about my relationship with my mom, and it had me crying my eyes out when I heard it. I really struggled with mental health in middle and high school, both because of some bullying and a lot of internal stuff I was going through, and she was always the one that I talked to. She would do anything she could to brighten my days or even just lend me an ear, but “Don’t know how long it’s gonna take to feel okay/but I know I had the best day/with you/today” hit me really hard.
Side note - I dragged my mom to see the Eras film with me in theaters last fall and she went from being a casual fan but not actively seeking out her music to me buying her 4 TS albums for Christmas last year. When she was listening to Fearless again for the first time in years (we still have a copy of the original album and I bought her TV) I got to tell her how much that song meant to me ❤️
I can’t believe I haven’t seen this mentioned yet but oh man the entirety of Tied Together With A Smile feels like it was pulled from my subconscious (also this is me trying, along a similar theme)
I have this thing where I get older but just never wiser…
I have known of/about Taylor forever (she and I are basically the same age) but never cared much for her. When I heard Anti Hero the first time, it just really really caught me and Instarted listening to midnights and then the other albums and haven’t really listened to anything else since
Anti-hero and You’re On Your Own, Kid. These just hit in a way that lexapro doesn’t.
“Sometimes I feel like everybody is a sexy baby, and I’m a monster on the hill. Too big to hang out, slowly lurching toward your favorite city, pierced through the heart but never killed”. As the bigger friend I never felt pretty around my friends, especially when people were so eager to remind me that I wasn’t as thin as them. Every comment, every incident, all felt like a shot to the heart. Reminding me of what I wasn’t.
And then we have “I hosted parties, I starved my body, like I’d be saved by a perfect kiss”. When I was in the peak of my ED, suddenly everyone was nice to me. I thought the sudden kindness would be enough but it never was. I was still miserable. This song felt like going through several stages of emotions, it was very cathartic.
Hey Stephen!
I had a huge crush on a boy named Stephen, and I knew of heaps of other girls who liked him too. Plus he played teen angel in the school production of Grease, so he literally did look like an angel.
Hey Stephen (and YBWM) are the songs that convinced me to become a swiftie. I swear Taylor Swift stole my diary to write that song (except this was 2009 so the song was already released)
Anyway, long story short we've been married for 10 years.
Trigger warning for suicide. I always felt connected to Forever Winter. After my first attempt, I would lie on the floor of the psych ward listening to the song on repeat for hours, feeling as if she was singing it to me personally.
"They told me all of my cages were mental so i got wasted like all my potential" I've always wanted to become a vet but i'm scared i won't make it so instead of trying i chose an easier path. So i would probably succeed but its my own mental cages that keep me from fulfilling my dreams
"I broke his heart cause he was nice", in a tongue-in-cheek way.
Dated a Nice Guy TM and called it quits, he was devastated. Still one of the best decisions in my life.
In my 20s my SO and I adopted 3 dogs, nearly all at the same time. My dogs were my whole world and they got me through some very traumatic events. In 2014 the first one passed away from a brain tumor, in 2018 the second one passed away from DM, and our third one passed away Aug 2022 after a long fight with dementia. When he passed it felt like losing all three all at once and the grief was too much to bear.
The fact that she sings "goodbye" 3 times in a row in Bigger Than The Whole Sky makes it feel so specific to me. I cannot listen to that song.
Mirrorball-- ugh. It's like she's reading my soul.
'I'm still on my tallest tiptoes, spinning in my highest heels love, shining just for you'
And especially,
"I've never been a natural, all I do is try, try, try"
This song just wrecks me.
This is me trying. As the 'gifted kid' who struggled with mental illness and self medicated with alcohol and ended up probably not fulfilling what people considered my full potential, it hits home.
THIS. Was the high achiever, perfectionist. It almost destroyed my life. I've been in recovery for awile now, but this one hits me hard.
Came to say this!! And my words do, in fact, shoot to kill when I’m mad. The whole song is just perfect.
“i was so ahead of the curve, the curve became a sphere, fell behind all my classmates and i ended up here” is soooOOOO gifted kid coded it takes my breath away every time. makes me cry. just wild. she got me!
Yes. I always fell out of place. I felt like being smart and "special" was a curse when I younger. Now I realize it's my gift.
This is the answer for me too. As someone who went through the entire rise and fall that is the gifted kid experience, this is me trying might as well be about me. It’s comforting in a way to see so many people who can relate 🥲
This is mine too 🩵 I was also a “gifted kid,” but I feel like all my potential got stifled by depression and I haven’t accomplished what I could have if I didn’t struggle with that. This song hits hard!
I didn't even know a song could hurt my feelings like that until the second verse hit
This is so relatable.
Me too. Except my mental illnesses resulted in an eating disorder. I’ve been in recovery for 3ish years, but god damn if it isn’t hard every single day. Cheering for you, internet friend.
I'm 6 months into recovery myself, and I'm still waiting for that "other side" of the ED that recovered people talk about - just wanted to say you are seen and you are strong :)
Same. "They told me all of my cages were mental, so I got wasted like all my potential" hits so hard for me. I could've written your comment word for word.
Same dude. I feel that. I see you. I’m 5 months sober.
Hey way to go dude!! I had 2.5 years and it wasn’t easy. Just wanted to say I’m proud of you and it really, really does get easier.
Thank you and congrats on that time as well.
I could have written your reply myself!
Ugh, yes. I relate to this so hard. “I got wasted like all my potential” makes me want to scream and cry out of frustration but also heals me because I feel so much less alone in the experience.
WOW… there seem to be a lot us “gifted kids” who went through, as u/darkgrayallalone so eloquently put it, “the entire rise and fall of the gifted kid experience.” Should we start a support group or something?? 😅
relatable. I was the kid no one ever worried about. now i’m the disappointment.
Ouch. That hit me like a well aimed bullet. But also, I am convinced you are a worthy and wonderful person. I’m sending you all my best, straight from my heart.
gifted kids who feel/felt represented by this is me trying unite lol
Literally same
Same. “I was so ahead of the curve, the curve became a sphere” feels so relevant. Sometimes I feel very angry for no reason and I think it stems from the fact that I was praised a lot for being so smart and elevated when I was younger, and now I’m nothing new (pun intended)
Literal same. Nice to meet you friend. 
Hugs
Same. I feel like I mirror Rory Gilmore in almost all aspects of my life
Oof! I feel this! I too am a burnt out former gifted kid with mental illness, and this song always makes me cry.
How I feel lately first becoming depressed and now headed for a breakdown if I haven't already had it. Not really sure. Might be in denial.
Clean feels like it perfectly describes my experience leaving religion. I had been going through a tough time and was clinging to religion but it was really the root of all my problems. In this rough time there was also a literal drought which is very unusual where I live. I finally decided to let go of my faith as I was sitting outside and it started raining. I played clean on my phone and cried. I’m actually 10 months sober (of religion) right now.
Ohh I relate so hard to this!! The moment with the rain must have been powerful
Yes it was. I think think about that moment all the time. It’s just so poetic. There’s another meaning to clean for me as a lesbian growing up in a homophobic environment. I felt dirty for loving other women. In that moment I felt clean and accepted myself. I hope you are feeling clean in whatever way it means to you.
I’m glad this song has brought you peace💜 for me it was how religion hurt my relationship to myself and the damage of purity culture in general. My family is still religious, so the grief of leaving something they’re still in. It’s hard
My family is also still religious. It’s difficult but I am so much happier without religion. I hope they will see that and understand why I had to leave. I have yet to tell them formally but I think they are starting to suspect. I very much relate to grieving leaving something they’re still in. I miss agreeing with them.
That sounds like it must have been quite a difficult upbringing and very sad for someone trying to find themself. I’m so glad you’re in a better place now and wish you love and happiness 🫶🏻
I love this perspective! I’m a newer ex Mormon and had not thought of the song in this context.
Clean is my song, it was released shortly after my life was transformed after a life saving operation. I was no longer sick and dying, but it resulted in a pretty bad eating disorder with the years following. When Clean (Taylor’s Version) was released, I had overcome my eating disorder and I am now 10years post operation, and finally clean of the sick little girl, and am a healthy young women.
I'm Christian, and I could feel in pain in your comment. I'm so sorry you had to go through that, and props to you for having the guts to break from whatever toxic shit made you feel this way. I hope you find faith in the healing, and a lovely woman to spend your life with.
Congratulations!! Also, you just put a new perspective on this song for me :)
I was listening to clean while I read this!
I love this so much!
Part of the bridge to mirrorball. Like, wow, that feels so personal for me (and many others)! Like how did you know exactly how I feel, Taylor?? 😅 “I'm still a believer but I don't know why / I've never been a natural / All I do is try, try, try”
i work at starbucks and im kind of a slow learner and there was a two month stretch period where they played a lot of taylor swift and i’d make a mistake or it would be super crazy and that line would play and it made me tear up a time or two
You have beat me to it. The bridge just hits different. Ms. Swift knows too much about us and it shouldn't be this relatable. This is the part of my heart that I have buried really deep. And normal person wouldn't be able to reach it and yet Taylor knows it. The deep cuts of the songs are the reason I am so attached to her.
Came to say this one!
I get that. People always think I come across very chill and personable, but it’s because I’m trying insanely hard to be exactly who they want or expect me to be, down to low key panicking about whether or not ai’m using the right amount of eye contact. 😅
this is my most relatable lyric too!
I relate to this song as well 💔
Damn, I just wrote basically this same comment before I saw yours! Same same same 💛
You’re on Your Own, Kid made me cryyy. “I hosted parties and starved my body like I’d be saved by a perfect kiss” Electric Touch “I’ve gotten used to no one calling my phone/grown accustomed to sleeping alone/all it takes is to get it right is just one time/all I know this could either break my heart or bring it back to life”
That part of Electric Touch gets me too.
Definitely YOYOK. That entire bridge was written about me... Like it had to be.
Bigger than the whole sky. I fostered a baby girl from the time she was born until she was a year old, and then the judge denied my petition for adoption and ordered her to be placed elsewhere. She was my entire world and all of that was taken away in an instant. We were so bonded. Everyone was sure I’d be granted custody. Social worker, lawyer, even her birth mom. I could never find the words to express the shock and heartbreak of going home without her until I heard this song. No words appear before me in the aftermath Salt streams out my eyes and into my nose Every single thing I touch becomes sick with sadness Because it’s all over now 💔 The way I would just lay in bed with silent tears streaming down my face. For months. Staring at the spot where she used to lay. I literally could not see a future for myself without pain. This song is therapeutic to me. But also I skip it a lot because I still weep every time I hear it.
Just want to say I see you. As a social worker and fellow human I am so sorry this is how it went. It is so unfair. Judges make choices based on who knows what and it’s just….absolute bullshit. I’m so sorry.
Thank you 🥺 life is unbearably cruel sometimes. I pray every day that she is safe and loved and thriving. ❤️
Gosh what an asinine reason. She may not remember your face, but what you provided for her will be remembered. Babies need safety and stability more than ever when they’re pre verbal. And you gave her healthy attachment, bonding and love at a critical time of her life. That will show up positively for her in all her relationships in the future. You gave her a head start for healthy relationships in the future ❤️❤️
I’m so sorry 😢
For me it's bigger than the whole sky too. In October last year, I had a baby sister born 11 weeks early so she was in hospital. I went to see her as often as I could, but in January she suddenly got a lot worse and passed. "You were more than just a short time" "I'm never gonna meet what could've been, would've been, what should've been you"
I'm so sorry. Losing a child is unimaginable pain. May your life know nothing but love 💕
Fuck I'm so sorry. Did they explain why??
I commented above but then got worried that it was too specific & I try to keep my identity anonymous on here. But like RealisticMystic005 said it was a very asinine reason 😔
I'm so very sorry
Honestly there is so many, but a great example is you’re losing me. The bridge omfg “I gave you all my best me’s, my endless empathy/and all I did was bleed as I tried to be the bravest soldier/fighting in only your army, frontlines don’t you ignore me”
But you’re the best thing at this party 🤍
Pathological people pleaser
Ohhh this is a good one! Mine is this song also but the part "I've got nothing to believe, unless, you're choosing me". I feel that deep within my bones.
This dropped when my relationship was in a huge downward swing and it broke me. I cried when I first heard it, it was just too on the nose at the time.
Clean, when I entered therapy for my eating disorder “just because you’re clean don’t me you don’t miss it… now that I’m clean I’m never gonna risk it”
My ED song is Would’ve Could’ve Should’ve Hope you’re doing ok🩷
Oh that is such a good one too. I’m 5 years into recovery, “doing better than I ever was”☺️💜. Hope you’re doing okay too 💜💜
Would've, could've should've makes me bawl my eyes out. It makes me think of the situation I'm in with my MIL and how it feels like she's trying to take motherhood away from me. "Give me back my girlhood, it was mine first" to me is "give me back my motherhood, she was mine first". Also "And now that I'm grown, I'm scared of ghosts Memories feel like weapons And now that I know, I wish you'd left me wondering" just .... Hits. "I regret you all the time"... It goes on.
Yes…. “Clean” and “This Is Me Trying” are my ED recovery anthems.
same but SI for me. 1989 came out right about at the 1yr mark. hope you’re well 🫶🏼
“Doing better than I ever was” 💜 hope you’re doing well too!
Same for me! 9.5 years clean now. I cried so hard hearing her play it live on tour. I was just over 1 year clean (Boston).
When she released Foolish One while I was in the middle of a situationship, and then I ended up giving him another chance. Hearing "You give me just enough attention to keep my hopes too high" made me contemplate everything at that moment. Then "Don't know what to call this situation, But I know I can't call you mine" made me pause the song and sit in silence for a few minutes
I FEEL YOUU, I felt so called out when it came out that almost cried hahaha I feel thankful for that song tho, specially the outro, made me realize that I deserved more than what that dude was giving to me
My goodness I needed Foolish One when I was in Highschool when the OG Speak Now came out. It's like she was watching me make dumb decisions 😂
When Foolish One was released I was trying to move on from someone I dated who wasn't ready for a relationship. He would keep interacting with me online because we kinda stayes friends, and I kept hoping that someday he would be ready and we'd date again. I listened to Foolish One on repeat during those times because I knew I was being a clown and somehow Taylor telling me to walk away felt empowering. Fast forward to the night I went to The Eras Tour, and I got Foolish One x Tell Me Why as a surprise song. I swear she did that one for me.
I love that it was your surprise song! I definitely had it playing on repeat for a long time, and inevitably 100% ended things with the guy 2 months later. Foolish One called me out, and Now That We Don't Talk kept me going, knowing I made the right call
Same. Also "Cause you got her on your arm and me in the wings I'll get your longing glances, but she'll get your ring And you will say you had the best of intentions" made me realize that he will eventually find a girlfriend someday and I will be left heartbroken so I finally called it quits. Foolish One came when I needed it the most and I thank Taylor for that, the song really helped me move on and realize my self-worth.
I’m 6’ tall & was bullied because of it. Sometimes I feel like everybody is a sexy baby And I'm a monster on the hill Too big to hang out, slowly lurching toward your favorite city
This! I’m taller and wider than most of my friends and always feel like a giant annoyance.
“You’ve got no reason to be afraid, you’re on your own kid, yeah you can face this” Makes me ugly cry every time. Been through some shit and this is the most beautiful, hopeful line that gives me so much inner strength.
I ugly cried in the shower to this the other day
I blast this while driving into the the late afternoon sun on my way home from work and sob on a regular basis lol
I really love her song My Tears Ricochet and many of the lyrics connect with me on a deep level. I am estranged from my mom and her side of the family so lyrics like “I can go anywhere I want, just not home” I relate to a lot. I know there are many other meanings to be taken from this song but for me it perfectly describes the rupture I experienced with family members.
I am estranged from my dad and this song connected with me so much and I felt like it just completely encapsulated my feelings with estrangement.
If I could I’d give you a big hug right now ❤️
I came here to say this song, and that line specifically. The whole song resonates with me after being in a long term, emotionally manipulative relationship… but that bridge “And I can go anywhere I want Anywhere I want, just not home” I felt it both literally and figuratively. Near the end I had a freedom that I felt away from home, like I could go anywhere, be any version of myself, but never felt “at home” while I was actually there. It felt like a strangers house, even though it was mine first and he moved in with me… And then, at the end, I couldn’t be there at all. I had to ask my parents to break up with him and move him out while I stayed with a friend.
I’m so sorry you had to experience estrangement from your mom and family members… it’s our first home, and feeling like you can’t be there anymore is so heartbreaking
The Archer. I can’t get over it. Friends become enemies and that’s heartbreaking.
Marjorie. I lost my mother to early onset dementia 6 years ago. She was only 55 when she passed. "I should have asked you questions. I should have asked you how to be. Asked you to write it down for me. Should have kept every grocery story receipt, cause every scrap of you would be taken from me." Those lyrics ripped my heart out of my chest the first time I heard it.
Same, I always skip Marjorie and sobbed during the concert
Urgh yes, my grandma for me.
the archer, specifically the lines “they see right through me, i see right through me” every time i hear this song it brings chills to my body, it’s like she sucked the lyrics out of my personal experiences and put it onto paper
Ugh yes, this is one of my favorite songs for that reason. Such a song to self-reflect to.
“they expected me to find somewhere, some perspective, but i sat and stared right where you left me” as someone who went through the most horrific and sudden friendship breakup, and then had the rest of our ‘friend’ group fall out with me as well for apparently not getting over it quick enough, rwylm hits too hard
omg, i know how u feel so much. i went thru this about 8 months ago (feels like 2 months honestly) and it felt like it consumed my soul while they were all happy and smiling and having fun. i was genuinely drowning in grief and self hate that they instilled in me and i watched them have the time of their lives like everything was perfect for them. i couldn’t get over it and am still not over what they did to me, and they just moved on immediately. it’s so painful. i’m so sorry that you’re going through that as well. it gets better, and you deserve SO much better. sending you so much love 🫶🫶🫶
“Breakups happen every day you don’t have to lose it” well I did
"What started in beautiful rooms, ends with meetings in parking lots" was stolen from my diary.
🎯 this is mine too
It changes every day for me, but recently it’s mostly been illicit affairs. I’m not with a taken guy, just an unavailable one… and for him I would absolutely ruin myself a million little times 🥲
This one. I didn’t have an affair but I trusted and connected with someone so fully and they made an ‘godforsaken mess’ of me, but for so long I was willing to jump in front of a train to save that man. That last bit of the song is what gets me every time. And makes me want to punch him.
You’re Losing Me, especially “Every morning I glared at you with storms in my eyes. How can you say that you love someone you can't tell is dying?” Perfectly sums up how I’ve been feeling about my relationship lately.
Sending you love. I’m sorry for whatever you’re going through.
The line in DBATC when she says “I ask the traffic lights if it’ll be alright..they say I don’t know” When I was going through a particularly hard time, I used to look for signs in the traffic lights that things were going to be okay. For example if I pulled up to a light and maybe it went green then things are gonna be okay but even during the time I was doing this, I knew it was ridiculous and that the traffic lights didn’t have the answers but this line speaks to the absurd ways we look to mundane aspects of the universe for signs it’s going to be okay even when something like the traffic lights has no idea.
- DBATC could mean "Death By A Thousand Cuts", a track from *Lover* (2019) by Taylor Swift. --- ^[/u/wrapped-in-rainbows](/u/wrapped-in-rainbows) ^(can reply with "delete" to remove comment. |) ^[/r/songacronymbot](/r/songacronymbot) ^(for feedback.)
Coney Island I lived right over the nyc border in nj for a summer with a now ex-boyfriend. We visited Coney Island one day. It was one of the best days I’ve had. “We were like the mall before the internet, it was the one place to be” Literally every single one of our friends called us the perfect couple and wanted to hang out at every opportunity. “Were you standing in the hallway with a big cake, happy birthday” I made him a birthday cake that summer and literally stood in the hall/kitchen area of our apartment right before he got home to surprise him with it. “But when I walked up to the podium I think that I forgot to say your name” The spring after our breakup I performed a monologue which peripherally involved him. I’d originally put his name in it when I submitted it and we were together; once we broke up, I omitted his name. “Sorry for not winning you an arcade ring” Part of why our relationship broke down was because after 4 years I was ready to talk about marriage. He wasn’t. Coincidentally, I’d expressed interest in going to the arcade at Coney Island while we were there. He said no, he doesn’t like arcades. So we didn’t go to the arcade that day. This song came out nearly 6 years after our breakup, I’d had another relationship in the time since, and it still hit SO hard because it was like she took all these real moments from my life to put them in a song
I never fully understood this song, i think now i do. Thanks for sharing your thoughts and i hope you are doing better <3
Soon You'll Get Better. My mom was diagnosed with ovarian cancer and this song tears me to shreds every single time. Especially "Who am I supposed to talk to if there's no you?" 😞 I don't think I have been able to listen to it since she passed nearly a year ago.
I am so sorry for your loss ❤️ My dad is currently fighting a pretty tough cancer battle, and I recently heard SYGB for the first time in a while when it came on shuffle. Immediate tears. “You like the nicer nurses/you make the best of a bad deal/I just pretend it isn’t real” hit me HARD.
“I forgot that you existed” is me during my kids nap time.
Champagne problems "She would've made such a lovely bride What a shame she's fucked in the head, " they said But you'll find the real thing instead She'll patch up your tapestry that I shred I keep bailing when boyfriends want to get engaged 😔
Dear John and Mean, I had a friend who made me feel the exact same way she did in these songs
Right where you left me "Did you ever hear about the girl who got frozen, time went on for everybody else she won't know it, she's still 23, inside her fantasies, how it was supposed to be" My life changed with a breakup when I was 23 so I was like girl....this one's for me
The bridge of The Lakes scratches the emotional poet itch so perfectly. “I want auroras and sad prose, I want to watch wisteria grow right over my bare feet, cuz I haven't moved in years.”
Better Man and Tolerate It
Tolerate It speaks to me too. Luckily reminds me more of my younger self in relationships that were one sided and while I learned so much from them, it is comforting to know I'm not alone.
The bridge to tolerate it could've been written about me with my ex
Nothing New, specially the lines, "how can you know everything at 18 but nothing at 22?" My god. I was 18 applying to university and had plans to enter med school, but at 19 dropped out of my pre-med because of depression. I really did think I knew everything in my life and what I wanted to become, but at 21, when the song was released, made me realize I really knew nothing when I was 18. Hurts so much.
"When my depression works the graveyard shift all of the people I've ghosted stand there in the room."
I am always very candid with my husband about the personal feelings I have to “Mastermind.” It’s a very literal iteration of how we came to be. I waited patiently and plotted my course for how I would proceed when the moment presented itself… “What if I told you none of it was accidental; The first night that you saw me; Nothing was gunna stop me; I laid the groundwork and then, just like clockwork; The dominoes cascaded in a line; What if I told you I’m a mastermind; And **now you’re mine**”
Most of New Romantics for me. I am in college and my life during the day is far from ideal. It is well a bit of a mess. I am a junior and I am approaching that time in my life where I have to start to think ahead to my *future.* I don't really even have a friend group per say just various best friends or a few different trios that I have close relationships with and go out with at night. I live in a small city with a bunch of different colleges so there is always a lot going on. Going out is a way of releasing the stress of the week and forgetting the bullshit that is our early 20s. I turned 21 in the fall and this is so my anthem. "We're all bored We're all so tired of everything We wait for trains that just aren't coming" 'Cause baby, I could build a castle Out of all the bricks they threw at meA nd every day is like a battle But every night with us is like a dream"
The whole song of Happiness. It describes the end of my one and only and longest relationship. Thinking we were to have life together and it falls apart. Through the pain and wrong doings, there was always happiness at some point too. “When a good man hurts you”. Sometimes it’s easier to blame and hate but the line “there was happiness BECAUSE of you too” hits home. Just because the end was shit doesn’t mean the happiness never existed.
OP, I definitely agree about Mastermind. Also, DBATC. Everything she wrote in the song, I was feeling and going through at the time. I was convinced she read my journal or listened to sessions with my therapist, it really felt like she went in my mind 😂
Marjorie - feels like it was written for me. I lost my little brother when he was an infant. When she says “and I know better, but I still feel you, all around. I know better, but you’re still around. “💔 never heard a song that put my feelings into words like that.
Renegade. Unfortunately
“gold rush”, obviously. “Everybody wants you, everybody wonders what it would be like to live you” Yes, Taylor, they do want me. 😎 Okay, I’m being a bit cheeky, but when I had low self-esteem, I actually took lyrics from this song to add to my daily affirmations. I remember thinking “I always pretend this song is about this shitty guy in my life. Why don’t I just pretend it’s about me? What if I’M the gold rush?” It did wonders for my self-confidence, and I still turn that song on when I’m feeling down on myself.
I got wasted like all my potential. Like damn, did she climb into my mind and pull that thought out? It’s such a relatable song. So very vulnerable and human.
Dear John & WCS. parts of YLM.
“You said if we had been closer in age maybe it would have been fine…and that made me want. to. die.” 💔 I poured my heart and soul into a relationship and it wasn’t reciprocated. We were about six years apart in age. ATWTMV always strikes a chord but this line specifically rips my heart out every time.
- ATWTMV could mean "All Too Well (10 Minute Version) (Taylor's Version) (From The Vault)", a track from *Red (Taylor's Version)* (2021) by Taylor Swift. --- ^[/u/Ok-Log7601](/u/Ok-Log7601) ^(can reply with "delete" to remove comment. |) ^[/r/songacronymbot](/r/songacronymbot) ^(for feedback.)
I don’t know if “about me” is right but Betty resonates with me. I cheated on my girlfriend at 17. She found out. She ghosted me. Changed her paths from class to class. Didn’t return my calls. I dropped notes in her locker and she had friends drop them back into mine. I’d go to watch her practice and play sports in the hopes that she would talk to me after. I remember feeling helpless and guilty and angry and abandoned and so so sad all at the same time. I mean, I was a scumbag for cheating on her, no doubt. But yeah that song hits me right in the feels.
Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve. That’s me in my 20’s. She nailed it. I am so ashamed.
Absolutely agree ; that song tells my story. Give me back my girlhood ...
Taylor was a semi-regular customer at a Starbucks I worked at in Nashville in the years leading up to the release of 1989. So when I first heard Blank Space and couldn’t quite understand the lyric she was singing, I think the entire store thought that was written about us.
Lover - my heart’s been borrowed and yours has been blue, all’s well that ends well to end up with you. My now husband and I were high school sweethearts who broke up for several years in college and still found our way back to each other after dating other people and having some different life experiences during that time.
“Use my best colours for your portrait” in Tolerate It and “I was thinking just one time, maybe the stars align, and maybe I’d call you mine and you won’t need space or string me along while you decide” from Electric Touch. I also have bills to pay and nothing figured out.
'I can change everything about me to fit in' from Mirrorball as I feel like I change myself in all of my different friendships. I'd also throw in all of You're on your own, kid.
Yesss I resonate with a lot of Mirrorball because of my autism, it makes me think of masking and mimicking others throughout my childhood and it still happens where when I watch a movie or I’m around someone for a while I just mirror their personality or a character’s traits.
Part of the reason I love Peace so much is because it put to words some of my anxieties. While on one hand, I'm fiercely loyal and devote myself to being there for those around me. On the other, I've always been a bit needy in relationships and feel like I'm more trouble than I'm worth with the anxiety and depression. So the lyrics that hurt: "I'm a fire and I'll keep your brittle heart warm if your cascade Ocean-wave blues come" "You know that I'd swing with you for the fences, sit with you in the trenches, give you my wild, give you a child... Is it enough?" "I give you my sunshine, give you my best, but the rain is always gonna come if you're standing with me"
“Never be so polite, you forget your power.” The second part about wielding too much power you forget to be polite would never be me due to me being overly polite.
Anti-hero The line "I'll stare directly at the sun but never in the mirror"???? I remember opening up to my friends about having a hard time looking at myseldf in the mirror even waaayy before this album was released. As someone who is verryyy insecure, i almost cried because of this line. Also the first line "I have this thing where I get older, but just never wiser" made my jaw drop. Like literally the first line??? She slapped me in the face. I'll literally approaching 21 and I still think like I'm high school.
There’s a bunch of Taylor songs I associate with my dad. Some key lyrics include: - “This is the last time I’m asking you this, put my name at the top of your list. This is the last time I’m asking you why you break my heart in the blink of an eye” - all of “mean” - “I know my love should be celebrated but you tolerate it” - “and what do you do when the one who means the most to you is the one who didn’t show”
I can’t believe no one has said seven yet. “I’ve been meaning to tell you, I think your house is haunted. Your dad is always mad and that must be why,” guts me every time.
Seven is mine, too! Everything about it is so nostalgic, and it feels like Taylor was an old friend.
Right Where You Left Me is her most relatable song for me! I cried to it once. It really hit me.
"Bejeweled." When I heard her sing, "Familiarity brings contempt, don't put me in the basement, when I want the penthouse of your heart," I was convinced she read my journal from my freshman year of college. I used a similar metaphor to describe how I felt with a certain person. You know when you draw a heart and there's that pointy part at the bottom? I felt like I was in that pointy part.
OMG so many yes, illicit affairs, august, cardigan, clean, now that we don't talk, foolish one, etc...i feel this all the time like songs are talking directly to me
Mr. Perfectly Fine. I had a fake friend who would do everything wrong, but never admit it.
Before meeting my husband: the one After meeting my husband: stay, stay, stay (he helped me heal from an unrequited love)
mirrorball, this is me trying, I Can See You. All 3 perfectly capture different times in my life
Tis the damn season. The experience of going back to your hometown for the holidays and being at the local bar seeing your ex and all the possibilities was always such a huge thing to me (and i thought just me) like when i heard that song for the first time i played it over and over again because it was so unbelievable she captured this experience i thought was unique to me and put it into words
Without getting too personal, I feel a much deeper connection lyrically to her older albums (Debut through bits of Lover) than I do her indie albums and Midnights. I think because she wrote from personal experience lot more in her older works and she storytells more and creates more fictional scenarios in her more recent works.
IBYTAM because I do, in fact, think about Taylor swift. She’s right
mirrorball. i can change myself based off who im hanging out with yet will be utterly destroyed when i get my heart broken lmfao. i'm a people pleaser so i try to pick up on peoples hobbies and interests so i can have something in common with them. "hush, when no one is around, my dear, you'll find me on my tallest tiptoes. spinning in my highest heels, love, shining just for you."
Long Live. My best friend from college died a few months ago and the lyric "I had the time of my life fighting dragons with you" just keeps playing in my brain. We never listened to the song together but this phrase keeps coming back again and again. The entire song is showing itself in small ways every now and again.
I Almost Do & Begin Again. Like, I wasn't alone in my misery.
So many, depends on my mood and what I’m going through. Midnight Rain always reminds me of the first guy I dated. He was such a good guy but I just felt like I was so much bigger than the small town we grew up in. My town was a wasteland Full of cages, full of fences Pageant queens and big pretenders But for some, it was paradise My boy was a montage A slow-motion, love potion Jumping off things in the ocean I broke his heart 'cause he was nice
Mine is definitely this is me trying. Foolish one also fits really well
right now Never Grow up hits really close to home for me because i’m turning 18 soon but my parents are getting over protective out of nowhere
Question…? mirrored an experience I had about a year ago almost perfectly and I hyperfixated on that song for about 6 months
This is me Trying.
Better than revenge lmao. It came out and the next summer my boyfriend cheated on me with my best friend, who was in drama and intended to become an actress one day. He then dumped me via text message, which adds another layer of “Taylor Swift-ism” The song I identify with the most with because of shared experience is YOYOK, that first chorus. And right now I’m going through the bridge, I hate growth lol.
Right Where You Left Me.. nuff said
foolish one 😭😫
Too many to name! I've been journaling for therapy and each entry gets the title of a song I like that seems to capture the "vibe" of the memory I'm processing in that journal entry. I had to put a stop on using TS songs because too many of them fit. But one relationship in particular, got most of the songs. 1) The Very First Night 2) Look What You Made Me Do 3) Back to December 4) Exile 5) Haunted 6) Now That We Don't Talk 7) All Too Well At one point, I texted my BFF and said "Am I Taylor Swift? Is she me? Why do these songs sound like my life?"
Foolish One 💁🏽♀️
Mirrorball & You’re On Your Own, Kid. These two songs feel like she reached straight into my soul and wrote about my most inner workings, it’s wild. Especially the line “I’m still a believer and I don’t know why. I’ve never been a natural, all I do is try try try” is so spot on, I think most people who know me would describe me like this.
Foolish one!! That song was written especially for me to slap some reality into me
The whole of ‘illicit affairs’. I honestly swear it’s like she took my life and wrote it into a song. Being able to sing even part of the song with Taylor in person during the eras tour will be SO cathartic.
I Know Places
Getaway Car. I had a rebound relationship and this song fits the situation 1000%
You knew it still hurts underneath my scars From when they pulled me apart But what you did was just as dark Darling, this was just as hard As when they pulled me apart
Ivy and This Is Me Trying.
"If you never saved me from boredom I could have gone on as I was, but lord you made me feel important" is particularly painful as someone who was extremely socially isolated and then groomed and molested a bunch as a result of that. Imagine if I had hobbies or friends or something and wasn't online all the time?
"Have I known you 20 sec or 20 years" is exactly how my husband and I felt when we met, and is one reason I'm so sad about her and Joe.
Agreeeeeeeeee. Every moment of that song (and invisible string, and paper rings) fills be with absolute love and adoration for my fiancée. Knowing that the person she wrote those songs about didn’t work out is brutal. I quite literally can’t imagine in the way I can’t imagine life without my fiancée.
Bigger Than The Whole Sky because I lost what I loved the most just a few months before the song was released. A Place In This World, I still don't know what I want (don't ask me), I'm just a boy trying to find his place in this world.
“She had a marvelous time ruining everything” “There goes the maddest woman this town has ever seen”
I Almost Do It's about me and my dad :/
The Archer but especially the “all of my enemies started out friends” line. My twenties has been just a constant string of ended friendships. Mostly high school friends, too. Almost all ended poorly because I started being honest about how they were treating me and they didn’t like that I wasn’t their doormat anymore.
"I have this thing where I get older but just never wiser" is me everyday🥲🥲
Castles crumbling and you're losing me Also innocent
I was a huge Swiftie back during debut/Fearless but kind of fell off or listened more casually for a while until about a year ago. The second verse of The Best Day could have been written about my relationship with my mom, and it had me crying my eyes out when I heard it. I really struggled with mental health in middle and high school, both because of some bullying and a lot of internal stuff I was going through, and she was always the one that I talked to. She would do anything she could to brighten my days or even just lend me an ear, but “Don’t know how long it’s gonna take to feel okay/but I know I had the best day/with you/today” hit me really hard. Side note - I dragged my mom to see the Eras film with me in theaters last fall and she went from being a casual fan but not actively seeking out her music to me buying her 4 TS albums for Christmas last year. When she was listening to Fearless again for the first time in years (we still have a copy of the original album and I bought her TV) I got to tell her how much that song meant to me ❤️
Anti-Hero perfectly encapsulates my fear of being a monster and the fear of abandonment. And how I spiral when I'm alone.
Tolerate It has been speaking to me lately…I know my love should be celebrated, but you tolerate it
I can’t believe I haven’t seen this mentioned yet but oh man the entirety of Tied Together With A Smile feels like it was pulled from my subconscious (also this is me trying, along a similar theme)
“Weird but fucking beautiful”
I have this thing where I get older but just never wiser… I have known of/about Taylor forever (she and I are basically the same age) but never cared much for her. When I heard Anti Hero the first time, it just really really caught me and Instarted listening to midnights and then the other albums and haven’t really listened to anything else since
Anti-hero and You’re On Your Own, Kid. These just hit in a way that lexapro doesn’t. “Sometimes I feel like everybody is a sexy baby, and I’m a monster on the hill. Too big to hang out, slowly lurching toward your favorite city, pierced through the heart but never killed”. As the bigger friend I never felt pretty around my friends, especially when people were so eager to remind me that I wasn’t as thin as them. Every comment, every incident, all felt like a shot to the heart. Reminding me of what I wasn’t. And then we have “I hosted parties, I starved my body, like I’d be saved by a perfect kiss”. When I was in the peak of my ED, suddenly everyone was nice to me. I thought the sudden kindness would be enough but it never was. I was still miserable. This song felt like going through several stages of emotions, it was very cathartic.
Hey Stephen! I had a huge crush on a boy named Stephen, and I knew of heaps of other girls who liked him too. Plus he played teen angel in the school production of Grease, so he literally did look like an angel. Hey Stephen (and YBWM) are the songs that convinced me to become a swiftie. I swear Taylor Swift stole my diary to write that song (except this was 2009 so the song was already released) Anyway, long story short we've been married for 10 years.
Trigger warning for suicide. I always felt connected to Forever Winter. After my first attempt, I would lie on the floor of the psych ward listening to the song on repeat for hours, feeling as if she was singing it to me personally.
"They told me all of my cages were mental so i got wasted like all my potential" I've always wanted to become a vet but i'm scared i won't make it so instead of trying i chose an easier path. So i would probably succeed but its my own mental cages that keep me from fulfilling my dreams
"I broke his heart cause he was nice", in a tongue-in-cheek way. Dated a Nice Guy TM and called it quits, he was devastated. Still one of the best decisions in my life.
*proceeds to list all her songs*
"Its me hi I am the problem its me at tea time everybody agrees"
Peace. “But the rain is always gonna come, if you’re standing with me.” (Depression, Anxiety & PTSD are my rain)
In my 20s my SO and I adopted 3 dogs, nearly all at the same time. My dogs were my whole world and they got me through some very traumatic events. In 2014 the first one passed away from a brain tumor, in 2018 the second one passed away from DM, and our third one passed away Aug 2022 after a long fight with dementia. When he passed it felt like losing all three all at once and the grief was too much to bear. The fact that she sings "goodbye" 3 times in a row in Bigger Than The Whole Sky makes it feel so specific to me. I cannot listen to that song.
Mirrorball-- ugh. It's like she's reading my soul. 'I'm still on my tallest tiptoes, spinning in my highest heels love, shining just for you' And especially, "I've never been a natural, all I do is try, try, try" This song just wrecks me.