T.S.

Leaving on my run this morning, I was hoping that some inspiration would hit me over the course of the few miles for something to write about. I have a few notes stowed away in my phone,  but none of the topics felt right, and so I was hopeful that my run would spark a good blog post.

Yet as I hit the 'shuffle' button on the Taylor Swift profile on Spotify, all I could do was reminisce as each song brought up a flurry of emotions and/or memories. And I thought to myself, no Kait, you can't write a blog post about Taylor Swift, no one wants to read that.

And then I thought, hold on, this is my blog though and I can actually write about whatever I want.

Now you may be thinking: "Kait seriously maybe it's time to reevaluate your life priorities, you're 29 years old and still fan-girling over a female pop artist?" 

Highly disagree. At this point you should know I'm a little bit crazy, and a lot more crazy when it comes to music.

It's on in my ears/apartment/car for several hours a day; I prefer music over T.V. New song releases are usually the best thing about my Fridays, and I'm extremely passionate about a solid Spotify playlist.

And when it comes to T.Swift - well, I'm maximum crazy. Like drive my husband insane giving him updates he doesn't care about kind of crazy.

However the reason I want to write today is because I want to give you the 'why' behind the crazy. Because the past ten years have tons of memories tied to her music, and honestly it's kind of cool to reflect back on. So just hear me out.

18 years old: Taylor released her first self-titled album, I was a freshman in college in '06. It was pure innocent country, and my dorm roommate (Amy) and I would try to out-sing each other to her song 'Tim McGraw'. It was fabulous and precious.

I think the best caption for any pictures from our freshman year is 'wow.'

20 years old: 'Fearless' came out my Junior year of college in '08, and 'Love Story' and every remix of it took over the speakers at the volleyball house I lived in. It's also a song I would eventually walk down the aisle to six years later, to a guy who at the time was half the reason I cried to Taylor Swift songs in the first place (sorry babe, but let's not act like our relationship has a fairy tale beginning).

22 years old: 'Speak Now' was her third, fall of 2010. I distinctly remember laying on the floor of my bedroom in Fort Collins, Colorado, in the midst of a hard/weird transition from Undergrad to Graduate school, and listening to the songs on repeat. This was the first time ever uprooting and moving to an entirely new state without knowing anyone outside of Andrew, and the process of figuring out how to do so gracefully was made a little easier with the help of Tay.

24 years old: I will never forget when 'Red' came out, because it came at one of the harder transitions in my/our life. October 2012, I was living in Columbia, MD, and neither Andrew and I were doing fantastic. Columbia wasn't really a town for us to thrive in, although we didn't realize it at the time. We hadn't made many friends, were both adjusting to working full time jobs, etc. Half the songs on Red made me cry - like really cry - and probably still would if I was in an emotional mood.

26 years old: '1989' came in hot, with a full-on switch to Pop. My life at the time was full of wedding planning and stress (Fall, 2014) and I was psyched for a new album to distract me. I won't lie, I remember listening to Shake it Off on my drive home from work and being a little confused. Then I listened two more times, and started dancing in my seat. Then I listened two more times, and realized she was a genius.

It's been over 1,000 days since she has released new music guys. Somewhere in there (July, 2015), I have one of the most favorite memories of my life; when my sister and I saw her live in Chicago on her "1989" tour. Emotional overload. I won't get into the details but it was an amazing experience.

So yes, I just wrote about my musical history with Taylor Swift. Because I love her music, and the amazing memories and feelings I have tied to them. From car parties on the way to downtown Foco, to 26.2 mile races, from dancing at our wedding, to my now 12 hour flights home. She's been there through it all.

Anyways, new single tomorrow (tonight for my U.S pals) and new album coming in November, and I'm stoked. Like, will most likely wake up at 4 am tomorrow and start listening to it on repeat kind of stoked. You don't have to like her or her music, but don't forget that she writes every one of her songs to some degree; you can't deny that she's one talented babe.

Cheers - 

Kait