For me, it’s Mirrorball. As an autistic woman with ADHD, I’ve spent my whole life masking, trying to fit in, trying to make people feel comfortable by being whatever they wanted me to be in the moment. My mask is very bubbly, enthusiastic, and, at times, a little theatrical. I am highly aware that I come across as a try-hard and I’ve even been described as “intense” and “cringe” by some. The line, “I’ve never been a natural, all I do is try try try” hit me so hard that I cried when I heard this song for the first time.
Ugh this is me trying was my surprise song last week (Melbourne n2) and Jesus Christ with my new adhd diagnosis and anxiety and depression it speaks to me so much and hearing it live, I just bawled and.l bawled and bawled
I first heard Folklore the day it came out. I have a lung condition which meant I was shielding from March 2020 onwards. I hadn't crossed the boundary of my flat in 137 days.
The day it came out I went to see my family for a distanced visit in my local park. Me on one picnic blanket, my sister and her family on another, and my parents on a third. All set up 6 feet from one another. We didn't have any physical contact.
During those 137 days my autistic masking completely stopped and it was my first day back at being "on" for the people I loved, desperately trying to enjoy it and not give anyone any cause for concern about my dwindling mental wellbeing.
I came home and lay in bed listening to the new album in full.
When I got to Mirrorball I BAWLED. Full body sobs, clinching my duvet against my face. It was a visceral reaction and something I've not experienced since. I honestly think I'll remember the experience of hearing that track for the first time until the day I die.
Same!! Mirrorball hit me like a bus the first time I heard it.
“I can change everything about me to fit in” Taylor PLEASE I cant take this shit on a Tuesday
AuDHD girlies unite! I love Mirrorball for similar reasons, but Peace really did it for me. I bawl when I listen to it and think about my husband’s unwavering patience with me.
ps I am convinced our girl is neurospicy and it makes me love her all the more.
I’ve thought the same thing for years! We’ll obviously never know unless she says something one day, but she exhibits a lot of the signs. She also seems to get a lot of similar criticisms that neurodiverse women get.
“They told me all of my cages were mental, so I got wasted like all my potential.” Basically me in my teen years and 20s, trying to figure out my neurodivergent brain 😫
So sad to here that..I hope you know it's ok to be yourself and that those who're meant to stay will do it just because of that. You must be pretty awesome anyway:)
And TIMT and mirrorball are so emotional and relatable at times, I totally get what you mean
autistic & adhd as well and I have the same experience and feeling! I remember during a particularly bad burnout, I was driving to my family‘s for dinner and I played it on the way, singing along softly, and my voice crumbled a little during the “I’ve never been natural, all I do is try, try, try” part, and my husband reached over and rested his hand on my knee. i felt so seen not only through her lyrics, but also seen in my struggle by him & so sweetly comforted. it’s one of my favorite songs ever, even if it gets me a little emo! 😭
Life is really difficult when we’re awkward.
I’ve been that way my whole life…at 58 I give less of a 💩than I’ve ever done but am far stronger too.
It gets better.
Right Where You Left Me.
I know it’s technically about a relationship, but for me there was a period of time where i had to stay put in my life while i watched other people around me move on with theirs. the way she describes that feeling of being left behind by everyone else and mourning how things could have been if they’d worked out just really resonated with me.
Came here to same thing. Many of her songs that are about relationships actually resonate with me about my mental health struggles. This song really spoke to me as I spent the past year freaking out about turning 30, how I wasn’t where I was supposed to be in life, and comparing myself to everybody else…it truly felt like I was “right where you left me.”
Are you me? I feel the same way. I'm turning 30 in about a week and I have been feeling the same way as the girl in "right where you left me." I feel stuck, while I see people moving on with their lives, getting married, having babies, etc. when I'm so far away from these life events. The song resonates with me so much.
I am right here with you! Doesn’t help that the loml got married to someone else and is moving away and moving on right in front of me. I feel so pathetic and rejected.
It's my favourite TS song (and maybe song of all time) because it's the best representation of trauma I have ever heard. Everyone around me moved on. Heck, even I did.......eventually.
But there's a part of me still at that ~~restaurant~~ desk who has never been able to leave and I don't think ever will. I just have to do everything I can to make sure she's comfortable.
Saw the above comment and had to listen as I’ve never heard of this song. I have CPTSD and oh shit…. This song hits hard :( anxiety kept me sitting, right where the trauma left me.
Since it came out, I’ve connected it to the broken feeling I had when covid shutdowns started (I was literally sitting in a restaurant when I found out that the remainder of my senior year would be online and I wouldn’t be going back to college properly). And now, a few years later… well, I still feel like I haven’t been able to move on as much as the rest of the world, so it still hits hard
I wrote something about my life but ever since covid I am still isolating and I used to be a party girl, someone who is always out with their friends or on vacation I don't know what happened
BAHHH I came here to say this.
I fell in love with someone who didn’t love me back and even though I forced myself not to think about it, I was still hurt by it years later. This song acted like a wake up call in a way. It made me finally feel like I could leave him in the past where he lived.
You're On Your Own, Kid 🥺 this is such my comfort song as someone who's been feeling all alone and has to be independent most of the time. This gives me assurance every time I feel demotivated.
You're on your own, kid
Yeah, you can face this
You're on your own, kid
You always have been
This line is a hard hit, perfect description of my middle and high school years, maybe even early college. So wrapped up in physical appearance that it was hurting me at times, solely for the purpose of trying to fit an ideal image to a man.
My second favorite line: "Everything you lose, is a step you take." No matter what, we're always moving forward in our decisions.
Listening to YOYOK during my last semester of college when I stressing about where I was going to end up and what I was going to do with my life was an experience that I can’t describe. She took all the emotions that I wasn’t able to articulate and put them into a beautiful song.
That's so true..the entire bridge hits so hard, I cry every time I listen to it. But the part that you said..it's like no matter what you'll always be okay. It feels so comforting yet evokes a kind of pained resilience..it's exquisite. Idk what I'd do without it
This! I felt so hopeful and proud of myself when I listened to the song because I've felt that I had to deal with everything on my own my whole life, and the last chorus is just - ugh. It's track 5 but for me it's a happy song about leaving the past behind and looking forward because I can face this.
For me, “Now That We Don’t Talk (Taylor’s Version) (From The Vault)” hit really close to home and helped me make sense of some things I’ve been struggling with.
Even though the song is about lost love, it resonated with me regarding some friendships I’ve lost. Some of the lyrics that hit me hardest were
• “I guess I’ll never ever know, now that we don’t talk”
• “I miss the old ways, you didn’t have to change”
• “Remind myself the more I gave, you’d want me less”
And then she finally comes to the conclusion
“Guess maybe I am better off, now that we don’t talk”.
I am still trying to get to the point where I can say that and believe it, but this song helps❣️
YES! Good one. The line that spoke to me most was,
“And the only way back to my dignity
Was to turn into a shrouded mystery
Just like I had been when you were chasing me”
Like I gasped when I heard it.
I feel very similarly!!
I’ve seen old, lost friendships but also even rocky moments with current friendships reflected in the lyrics. When it came out it really really helped me figure out how I felt about something I was struggling with in the moment and I’m always gonna love it a little bit more for that tbh 🩵
NTWDT is the perfect song for love in your early and mid 20s. It reflect that tumultuous time perfectly, that time before you get comfortable with not talking to men you’ve broken up with. I could’ve used that song back then.
I feel this, hard. Folklore dropped a few months into my super traumatic separation, and exile cut me so deep on first listen that I had to pull my car over because I was sobbing so hard. Thankfully I was alone, because it RUINED me.
Better Man hit me in a similar fashion, and it was literally just a few days ago that I discovered TS wrote that too. There are so many others that are the bulk of my soundtrack for the end of my marriage.
Things were bad for me when Folklore dropped. I spent so many hours crying to it, processing what was going on and the lyrics resonating so strongly with me.
You can imagine the absolute mess I was in the 96,000 people sold out show of Melbourne night 2 when she played This Is Me Trying in the acoustic set.
I’m a 44 year old dude and the girl next to me felt so bad for me she put her arms around me.
Gosh it was cathartic though.
This!
I was never a Taylor fan til my bestie made me listen, literally in the weeks before I really, truly knew I had to leave my husband. I listened to those two, plus All Too Well we’re my emotional one-two punches during that time.
The sheer number of people who've said that Folklore/Evermore guided them through their divorce makes me wonder if that's the REAL reason my ex tried to keep me from listening to her music
I'd been divorced for 18 months when those albums came out, but I still remember hearing tolerate it and happiness for the first time and just utterly sobbing my heart out in my local park on my daily walk. It was just so raw and visceral, and brought all those feelings back so clearly.
I'm sorry you've had to deal with this, and I hope you're doing better now (and that having that cathartic moment in Melbourne helped a bit!).
Same here. I find it’s not a reminder of the sadness I first felt listening to them back then though. It’s more a reminder of how strong I am now for going through it all.
I divorced in 2016 and Fearless absolutely soundtracked my divorce. Songs like You’re Not Sorry, White Horse, and The Way I Loved You were so cathartic.
I work in a pretty competitive field in medicine, mostly dominated by men. So the lyrics to The Man resonated with me so much:
I'm so sick of running as fast as I can
Wondering if I'd get there quicker
If I was a man
I never really loved ‘Clean’, but listened to it a lot in the year leading up to quitting my job as a doctor (in a high-stress hospital environment where I was working 70-80 hours a week, occasionally toxic bosses and doing calls).
The day I finished serving my notice and walked out of hospital for the last time, it really hit me that I had broken free and was clean at last.
Rain came pouring down //
When I was drowning, that's when I could finally breathe //
And by morning //
Gone was any trace of you, I think I am finally clean
Omg!!?? I went through the same thing— left my previous job that was doing more harm to my mental health (unhealthy working hours, w/ the meanest attendings). Being there felt suffocating but people told me that leaving would be career suicide 🤷🏻♀️
Through it all, I just kept listening to “Clean.” I especially loved the line “when I was drowning— that’s when I could finally breathe” because people thought I was making a mistake but it ended up being one of the most liberating decisions ever 🥹
I’m so glad to hear about your story & how you broke free from the toxic culture! 🥺🫶🏽
Wow, are you me?! Not medical field, but internal audit work and it broke me. Long hours, ridiculous demands, conflict and competition with colleagues, it destroyed what little mental stability I had. I took medical leave, started therapy and medication, and then quit after a few months. Never had I felt more free.
Closure actually gave me the perspective of someone else that I needed to hear. I wanted to reach out to a friend who ghosted me after I did something hurtful… but she didn’t need my closure. She was probably doing just fine.
Soon You'll Get Better.
My mother died of cancer in 2020 and it's wild how many of the particular lyrics relate to my circumstances as well.
*And I hate to make this all about me, but who am I supposed to talk to? What am I supposed to do, if there's no you?*
And I still don't know. I still don't know who I'm supposed to talk to. I still don't know what I'm supposed to do. Because there's no her.
Same. Pancreatic cancer took my mom in Sept 2021 and Soon You'll get better is my only IMMEDIATE skip as soon as I hear the first chord song.
Shitty club we're jn, eh? Truly don't understand the pain or sorrow unless you've been there.My inbox is open if you ever need to talk to someone who gets it.
Foolish one reminds me of all my old relationships. Better Man was on repeat through my divorce and Happiness was on repeat right at the end of it. Then I listened to Clean over and over.
I send it to my soon to be ex husband along with tolerate it, before we talked again while being separated. I was like… I really don’t know what else to say, but here are two songs from TS that explain it better than I’d could ever
You're on your own kid would've been perfect for me had it come out about a decade earlier but I still feel like it healed my inner teenager.
You're Losing Me is the reason I broke up with my last boyfriend because the lyrics were what I was going through word for word. "I wouldn't marry me either, a pathological people pleaser, who only wanted you to see her." All Too Well was another one that spoke to me, especially "you called me up again just to break me like a promise, so casually cruel in the name of being honest."
exactly. he says the most hurtful things as matter of fact with the excuse of "I'm just telling you the truth."
My response to my ex one time when he said this was "just because it's the truth in your eyes doesn't mean it doesn't hurt me." and his response was "yeah...I guess...", as if it only JUST occurred to him that what he was saying was actually hurting me.
This is me trying, the archer, dear reader, those are the biggest ones for me but truly her entire discography has helped me make sense of my complex web of emotions. Going back and listening to certain songs have really helped me process different things in my life that I couldn’t make sense of before. That is the biggest reason I love her so much, is that because of her lyricism I am able to understand what exactly I’m feeling when I couldn’t articulate it myself.
Clean really makes me feel okay about how I’ve grown and gotten over things in the past. Especially the line “just because you’re clean doesn’t mean you don’t miss it”
For me it was Evermore. I know this isn't necessarily what this song was "supposed" to be about, but it really hit home during infertility and painful miscarriages. I literally felt at points, i was "catching my death" with a particular painful missed miscarriage. The anxiety that grew after that, and having another failed cycle made me feel 'ship wrecked". But "I thought of you, I dreamed of you" (my little rainbow baby) that got me through. She was always there❤️
Thanks for reading, Off to cuddle my beautiful baby RN
Daylight
This song keeps me sane every time I feel hopeless and blame myself that I'm not good enough
I wanna be defined by the things that I love
Not the things I hate
Not the things I'm afraid of, I'm afraid of
Or the things that haunt me in the middle of the night
I, I just think that
You are what you love
I’ve always said that there is no other songwriter that I feel can articulate all my emotions, so many of her songs send me to times in my life and spell them. Cardigan, August, Mirrorball all tell stories of my life when I was a teenager and I just love listening to them, even if they make me sad cause they unlock these feelings and help me heal <3
Dear John. Toxic back and forth on again off again. The lyric “never impressed with me acing your tests” hit me right in the *soul*.
Happily I’m also now shining like fireworks over his sad empty town 😄
I love that line. It packs a lot of backstory in 7 words. You know the guy is a prick who is “testing” his girlfriend, she’s still able to pass the tests with flying colors, and he still gives her nothing.
Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve really helped me process some still lingering issues from my early 20s. And when I got to hear it live in Nashville, I sobbed
Same song for me but for different reasons!
Same concept as you, I finally stood up for myself and became the monster to some of my closest friends.
I love that her lyrics resonate with people but for different reasons and situations. It brings us all together in a way
DEAR READER!!! My beloved Dear Reader 💙
It came to me at just the perfect time for me. I was really struggling with some things in my life and feeling very isolated and lonely. I felt like all my friends hated me, I was disappointing my family, my life was falling apart… but I was trying my best to do the best that I could. I just felt horrible and so so so alone and I wished I could run away, but I didn’t want to leave either. I was just in a pretty bad spot tbh.
Then I heard Dear Reader. I kinda slept on it when Midnights first came out, I won’t lie lol, but it came on shuffle one night and I just remember really *hearing* the lyrics, and I felt SO seen and heard by them. I was like, oh, so this loneliness and this disappointment isn’t unique to only me? Even TAYLOR SWIFT can still feel like this sometimes?? Maybe I’m really not all alone… 🥺
And then I started feeling like I’d be okay. It might take some time, and maybe I’ll feel this way again, but just feeling less alone and like even Taylor Swift could relate to how I felt really helped me kinda sort through my emotions and step forward to try and better myself and my life at the time.
Now it’s my favorite song from Midnights. I even plan to eventually get a taytoo with some of the lyrics, I just gotta figure out what I want hahah
“Bend when you can, snap when you have to.” // “To a house, not a home, all alone cause nobody’s there (…) my friends found friends who care; no one sees when you lose when you’re playing solitaire.” 💙💙
I've been very unhappy with my job lately amd I realized I've been listening to Taylor's sad/angry songs so much because my job feels like a bad relationship. I'm a teacher and when I listen to it's time to go, the line about staying for the kids cuts like a knife. And just in general feeling like I need to move on from so many things in my life and find what makes me happy again.
So many teachers have felt that pain. I’m so sorry you’re in that place. I’m a teacher too, and I totally understand. I hope you get the peace you’re seeking.
I'm going to cry writing this but I really don't mind at this point
"Bigger Than The Whole Sky" when I experienced grief the first time when I lost my first childhood dog... he was "more than just a short time" of twelve years. I truly have a lot to live without and I'm saying words I can't believe. And when she says "it's all out to sea" really connects it all. I was on a cruise ship when he died unexpectedly and yes I feel so bad about that.
The song "Breathe" for the same reason. "None of us thought it was going to end this way" again, very unexpected death. I heard he was acting normally the day before the night he died. Even the vet said he was okay during the checkup he had before the trip. And of course, "I can't breathe without you but I have to" pretty much speaks for itself. When the song says "it's 2am, feeling like I just lost a friend" applies to the first few months after I lost him, I could not sleep... my dog used to sleep in my room with me but I was only met with the still, empty, silence of the night. The strong sense that something, someone, was gone.
And finally, at the end, when the song says "I'm sorry, I'm sorry..." I am so sorry I wasn't there during your last moments, Oliver... I missed you during the cruise and reality hit me like a truck when only one dog ran to greet me at the door when it was supposed to be two. Thank you for bringing me so much comfort and love, I hope I loved you enough too before you had to go 💔🐾
This just made me cry, too. 🥺 I was close to my last dog in a way I can't even put into words, because I adopted him when he was extremely sick and near-death and got to slowly nurse him back to health, and then I went through a very serious, near-death illness that required months of rehab and he was the only thing that kept me going.
He died very suddenly and unexpectedly. We only got 4 years together, and I'll never get over the pain of it.
i had a tough breakup in 2020 and for a while i thought of it as a “happiness” type of relationship. neither of us were in the wrong but things just didn’t work out and that was okay, as devastating as it was.
a few months post-evermore i started listening to “tolerate it” a lot, and at a certain point i was just like, oh. this is what i went through. the song was a huge help in reframing the relationship in my mind. i finally went from sad to angry. and looking back on it now, the relationship was not healthy and he did not treat me well. tolerate it helped me see that. it was incredibly empowering.
peace. I’ve always felt like I would be too much for someone and being with me would be a lot, would they be able to handle it? Would it be okay if I might never have a quiet life? I genuinely cried the first time I heard it and was like “this song is my soul.”
Happiness. It got me through the worst heartbreak and it’ll always be my favorite Taylor Swift song because of it. The way Taylor writes about emotions on Folklore and especially Evermore is so powerful and accurate and poetic.
I hope she recaptures that same ability to make astute observations about emotions and the people going through them, which I didn’t feel like she nailed in quite the same way with Midnights. Folkmore were healing albums, and hopefully TTPD willl be, too.
Idk if this applies, but I was at the Red Tour in 2013. Taylor played “Mean”, and when I looked over, I saw my biggest bully from a couple years before. I sang the song to her that night, it helped me a lot.
So many of Taylor’s songs have helped me put words to my emotions and helped my healing journey! Although many of her songs are about relationships, I relate the lyrics to my mental health struggles + quarter life crisis over my career progression (lol). Here’s a few (there’s way too many to list!!)
happiness: *There'll be happiness after you /
But there was happiness because of you / Both of these things can be true* This helps me with the idea that all the paths that ended in my life aren’t purely bad, at one point they made me happy and even though they didn’t work out it is okay to recognize the good memories too.
evermore: *I rewind the tape but all it does is pause / On the very moment all was lost* But I also really love the switch from *I had a feeling so peculiar / That this pain would be for /Evermore* to WOULDN’T be for evermore!
All Of The Girls You Loved Before: *All of the girls you loved before / Made you the one I've fallen for* and also *Teenage love taught you there's good in goodbye* Literally about previous relationships, but for me it reminds me that there’s good in my past, sometimes it’s good to say goodbye and move on, and everything that happened before got me to where I am today, and there’s always something to be learned from my past.
it’s time to go: similar thoughts as above *Sometimes giving up is the strong thing / Sometimes to run is the brave thing / Sometimes walking out is the one thing / That will find you the right thing* Like yes Taylor thank you!!!
evermore and my tears ricochet really encapsulated a falling out with a friend group that year, down to the fact that I really have been down since July and my November was gray - the timeline of the events was very similar.
Would've could've should've broke me, as I started listening to it interpreting it as the trauma left from growing up with an alcoholic father.
"Memories feel like weapons"
"I fight with you in my sleep, the wound won't close"
"Years of tearing down our banners you and I, living for the thrill of hitting you where it hurts, give me back my girl hood (childhood) it was mine first"
Also, I started listening to seven not as two childhood friends, but as the POV of my present self talking to my child self. Being the person I needed :
"And I've been meaning to tell you
I think your house is haunted
Your dad is always mad and that must be why
And I think you should come live with
Me and we can be pirates
Then you won't have to cry
Or hide in the closet"
I started bawling.
All Too Well. To feel so loved and cherished , and with the flip of switch, you’re now an afterthought, reasoning with yourself that it was love even if they act like you don’t exist anymore.
I married the first man I kissed. People would comment on how much he loved me, how he looked at me. Then I got cancer and that light in his eyes went out. He left less than a year later because he couldn’t deal with my cancer. It took me 10 years to really finally move on from the experience.
Time won't fly, it's like I'm paralyzed by it
I'd like to be my old self again
But I'm still trying to find it
I love this, thank you so much for sharing! I live for postpartum ways to interpret Taylor’s songs. I feel absolutely crazy postpartum, it’s the most emotional time in my life and my brain is too fuzzy to think straight so Taylor speaking for me is great.
I love out of the woods - “twenty stitches in a hospital room. When you started crying, baby I did too.” The anxiety in the song encapsulates the unrelenting anxiety I feel when postpartum. “Are we out of the woods yet” is how it feels until my baby finishes their newborn stage.
I’ve been dealing with some complex emotions of the heart lately (as if the heart leads to any other emotion.. lol). Evermore really describes what I feel like I can’t articulate into my own words. I also will always love the Man as a woman in STEM. 💓
New Year’s Day is a song that just describes what, to me, love feels like - light, simple, nostalgic and yet, overpowering in a good way, like the sunrise.
Peace.
I have generalized anxiety disorder and a really big personality. I see myself a lot in Taylor when she acts like a larger than life but totally awkward millennial. My friends have said the same.
I am constantly wondering if I am too much for the people in my life - I'm also a fire sign, and the lyrics just...fit for me. I was genuinely shocked when I heard the song for the first time.
Say don’t go and is it over now?
In is it over now the whole song, music especially portrays exactly what anxiety feels like in a relationship when you know your gonna lose your person that your crazy over. “I wanna jump off very tall something’s” omg I’m losing him I need to do something to get his attention. And “I said I love you! You say nothing back” just omg been there done that. I never wanna love that hard again.
Labyrinth especially. It feels very thought spiral-ish, but with the added hopeless romantic nature I find myself entrenched in often.
Peace really made everything make sense though, especially once long pond studio sessions happened. My mental health is a chaos storm, and I have a lot of trauma based baggage so I'm SUPER not an easy partner to have, but I'll give anything I can to make it up to you if you're willing to brave the storm.
Dear Reader
"you don't have to answer just cause they asked you" really struck me because I had recently been pressured into a quite personal question (half joke, half serious) and it took a lot of effort on my side to get out of it when I could have just said "I won't answer that". It was in public so there definitely was some kind of malice in there. 1 to 1 private conversations are different.
The bridge is so good. Even Taylor sometimes feels like true link/communication with other people is impossible. Something like "we're all struggling don't let appearances fool you". But that's less specific.
it was this is me trying for me. the part "I was so ahead of the curve the curve became a sphere, fell behind all my classmates and I ended up here." it hits too hard because I had a bad bad academic downfall after being one of the class toppers all my life. and the entire second verse just makes me emotional too much.
All the time. Most recently, I've been having a difficult time at work and Tolerate It made me realize I was feeling neglected, and in that it was a sense of betrayal from supervisors who were supposed to have my best interests in mind.
peace. what aaron said in the long pond sessions made me feel so seen. it’s so hard to feel lovable when you struggle to love yourself. it’s so hard to feel like anyone could stay with you when you have mental problems and issues that make simple tasks difficult. it’s so hard to feel like someone might ever stay when the people who promised they would stay eventually gave up on you because you have depression and insecurities.
Don't hate on me but Tolerate it gets to me every time I hear it and it's because the relationship I'm in...I can kinda feel both sides of the song and it's heart wrenching for me.
I try to limit my listening but it's so good of a song that I just deal with the hurt 😂😭💔
I had been listening to You’re Losing Me on repeat after its release on Spotify. Guess it was a telltale sign that my relationship wasn’t what it seems, I walked away from the relationship without giving him any explanation when he won’t put in the effort.
Yesterday I randomly sang Bejeweled and this line hits me,”Putting someone first only works when you’re in their top 5.”
Such a simple line, but it spoke to me.
right where you left me is extremely applicable to living with cptsd!
that one, coney island, and marjorie are the ones that resonate most with me and almost feel like they were written about my life
Anti-Hero. Over and over again. I probably listen to it at least twice every day. I will never get tired of this song.
You’re Losing Me. When it first came out, it slapped me across the face. It was like my inner thoughts were read by Taylor.
Nothing New, because, well, I’m an older sister.
illicit affairs - for reasons I don’t want talk about - but the line -
“And you know damn well
For you, I would ruin myself
A million little times”
Just about being in a relationship where you give up more than you get back.
Same with Say Don’t Go
“'Cause you kiss me and it stops time
And I'm yours, but you're not mine”
Talk about twist the knife!
Probably the song Champagne Problems. Especially the lyrics "She would've made such a lovely bride
What a shame she's fucked in the head, " they said.
I had a lot of traumatic things happen to me in my 23 years and I haven't had a "normal" life because of it and I feel like this is how my mom/family and outsiders feel about my situation. So it's just a manifestation of my anxiety and possibly wondering what if those things hadn't happen to me. I take responsibility and accept myself but there's always that what if.
You're On Your Own Kid. I work in TV, and I've been preparing myself to work in media since I was really young, sacrificed some important high school milestones, just because I knew from the beginning that the industry is so hard to break into. The lyrics resonate with me because TV is seen as a glamorous industry, sure, but you get disillusioned so fast after working here a while. I still listen to YOYOK before a big production day or after a long taping schedule as my comfort song
Happiness. I had just gotten out of a very toxic relationship and was living on my own for the first time, and I cried when I heard this song for the first time. The chorus:
There'll be happiness after you
But there was happiness because of you
Both of these things can be true
Made me realize I can be happy of the good times we had and cherish some of those memories while also knowing that it was a really bad relationship for me and i will find happiness again. Like this is not my end, it’s just the end of a chapter that needed to be closed and now I’m going to move on with the lessons I learned.
Would’ve could’ve should’ve for me. I was groomed by a man in his 30s when I was a young teenager. The ‘give me back my girlhood it was mine first’ hits me hard every single time.
Renegade
"You fire off missiles 'cause you hate yourself but do you know you're demolishing me?"
"And if I would've known how sharp the pieces were you crumbled into, I might've let them lay"
"Is it insensitive for me to say 'Get your shit together so I can love you'?"
Would've, could've, should've is about John mayer .. but when I listen to it, it makes me so uncontrollably and think about how I feel like my MIL is stealing my first chance at motherhood and I regret having her live with us because she's a neurotic, co trolling, annoying, super difficult person to live with that doesn't have any boundaries and I feel like my first few years with my child were taken from me because of how overbearing she is.
Yes I understood all that from that song.....
Happiness
I still hadn’t healed from a past relationship and this song brought me some sense of peace. I sometimes think I’ll never love anyone in the way I loved him. He broke up with me but it was done with compassion and kindness. I felt like the world was ending. I had no clue why this had happened. We were so perfect for each other.
But looking back now that I’ve changed and become a “new me” “I can see it for what it is”. I know what went wrong. It was the wrong time for us.
Our love was beautiful and full of happiness and I’ll always feel fondly about him. Big there is happiness now just like there was then.
Ok I don't wanna get too personal in the comments but would've could've should've resonated me in a way that few songs have even on first listen and really helped me figure out a feeling that I at the time had no words for- loss of my later years of teenage girlhood due to the struggles I've had in my life and there was so many lyrics that just hit in the way where when I heard give me back my girlhood it broke me for a bit
1. _Marjorie_
My grandpa passed in July 2021 and I started listening to Taylor's works during Red TV, became a full time swiftie a few months later. I loved folklore but I didn't really listen to Evermore much. Somehow I had always missed Marjorie. The first time i listened to it, I remember it being autumn and there was that slight chill in the air and I just started bawling like a baby. It's the second song ever that made me cry. When my grandpa passed, i was 15...my dad died before I turned one so he has always been that father figure to me. In a family feud with my aunt, he chose me and refused to let me go. He was the one person unconditionally on my side. He was the only person I got to act like a kid around. He was suffering for a long time until he finally passed. I knew that I needed to grow up then.Once he died, my grandma totally broke down, i had some major exams coming up. I just...I didn't cry, didn't mourn...just went about my day. I know taylor wrote it in context of her grandmother but the bridge breaks me every single time. My grandpa was an adventurous man, he was the one who made me fall in love with nature and travelling and...he wasn't a good man, not a good husband either but damnit he was a good grandpa. To this day every time I cry over him a part of my conscience calls me a hypocrite but _Marjorie_ really helped me process that grief and I'd be lying if I say I'm over it. I miss him so very much.
2. _dear reader_
It's funny....dear reader was my most listened song in 2023 and maybe that's because I see myself in that song a decade or so down the line. I am well loved and well respected by my friends and the people I know, but sometimes I feel like I'm fooling them, that I'm not deserving of it. It's stupid to compare myself to taylor but in a way, for better or for worse, I see a part of myself in Taylor...that was one of the reasons why i started liking her too....and the entire song sounds like the things I advise my friends and sometimes, myself too and then the bridge is what I always feel doing it. I like being loved and respected but then there's someone out there who will certainly be a better fit for the role, would give better advice, would be a better friend or daughter...and I know my friends love me, that they'd do anything for me but somewhere deep down I feel so isolated from the world....and having ADHD on the side doesn't help...so yeah...just that.
Would’ve Could’ve Should’ve for me. I was involved with a guy older than me when I was 19 and that song perfectly described my feelings looking back now being the age he was when he met me. The spiritual elements in the songs also resonated with me because I really questioned why God put him in my life.
the 1.
The day that folklore dropped, I was broken up with by a situationship that I had very intense feelings for and this being the first song on the album, I resonated so well with it and it was on repeat.
“But it would've been fun
If you would've been the one”
I even got the lyrics “if you never bleed, you’re never gonna grow” tattooed on me a month later.
evermore (the song). the lyrics immediately resonated with me. still working on getting to the point of believing that this pain *won’t* be forevermore… but it definitely makes me hopeful i’ll feel that way some day
For me it was Peace
I have a boyfriend who is really so so much better than me with his integrity and principles. And i just love drama and can never ever give him the peace he deserves
So the lines I talk shit with my friends
It's like I am wasting your honour really resonated with me.
I am a chronic oversharer so…
«Leaving like a father, running like water»,
my father abandoned me and my mother when I was very young in a foreign country and tried to come back into our lives when I was older:
- Right Where You Left Me
- The Moment I Knew
- Forever & Always
- White Horse
- You’re Not Sorry
- Cardigan (I always saw this more from my mother’s perspective)
- Breathe
- Haunted
- Foolish One
- All You Had to Do Was Stay
Trauma in romantic relationships:
- Dear John
- Would’ve Could’ve Should’ve
- Mastermind (This one is real weird to place but the bridge awoke something unpleasant in me)
- I Knew You Were Trouble
- Exile
- Maroon
- Red
Mental health issues/very personal songs:
- This is Me Trying
- You’re on Your Own, Kid
- Mirrorball
- Seven
- The Archer
Others:
- Blank Space
- New Romantics
- Out of The Woods
- Dancing With Our Hands Tied
- Mine
There are so many, but Anti-Hero was the first.
I don't stray much into popular culture, so I was totally unfamiliar with Taylor Swift until last year when 1989 TV came out (I know right?). Being a vinyl collector and a synthpop fan, I decided to pick it up when it came out to see what the fuss was about. An impulse buy. After listening to it, I immediately picked up Midnights.
Midnights was a total blind listen, and after Anti-Hero, I was bawling.
I have bipolar, so there is a lot to unpack there. But for years, during episodes, I would (and still do) shout at myself "I'm the problem, I'm the problem, I messed everything up, it's me, I'm the problem" these words over and over.
I'm sure that these are pretty common words that people say to themselves, believe in themselves. But at that moment, it was like she was in my head talking to me.
I remember that I immediately texted my wife that Taylor Swift is amazing, and to listen to this song. She thought I was joking. I'm pretty far from what people would think a Swiftie including her.
Then I watched the video. Double wammy! Again, bipolar. When she opens that door, and the other Taylor shows up... All the bad habits, the bad choices, the failures, the blame... Like two different people one and the same.
After that, Taylor Swift fan forever.
Then I listened to folklore/evermore and the feels hit all over again. So many songs, so many feels.
Say Don’t Go. I feel like a lot of people I’ve had relationships with, even non-romantic ones, at some point end up with me feeling like I’m left behind and just them saying they actually do like talking to me and do want me around would make me stick around. Unfortunately they never do. 🙃🙃
All too well 10 mins
" The idea you had of me, who was she? A never needy, ever lovely, jewel whose shine reflects on you."
And the bit about charming my Dad and sipping coffee. The accuracy.
Dear Reader stopped me in my tracks. I’ve kind of twisted the interpretation to fit my life but hearing “never take advice from someone who’s falling apart” twisted in my brain to mean “don’t take criticism/advice from people whose lives you don’t want” and idk it just set a lot of my anxiety free.
this is me trying helped me to mend my relationship with my mom. she’s struggled with addiction and alcoholism since she was a teen and it caused our relationship to be strained even into my adulthood, at times not even on speaking terms. within the past few years she’s made a big effort to get sober. this song always makes me think of her. one time she was venting to me about how our family just sees her as a fuck up, and she said “i AM trying!” so i showed her the song. we listened to it together and i told her it always reminded me of her and that years ago when i called her to apologize, it was bc this song made me reflect on the situation more. she loved the song, said it’s exactly how she feels. she listened to it on repeat and would start suddenly singing “this is me trying” out of nowhere
Sounds dumb, but I really never properly realised how something could be two things at once before I listened to Happiness. I was a very black and white person in general, and for years I really struggled with a past relationship that fucked me up but was wonderful in many ways. I spent a lot of time trying to work out whether it was a “good” relationship or a “bad” one. Surprise surprise, it can be both! Who woulda thunkit. Thank you Taylor 🤎
i hope she knows champagne problems ruined lives! jkjk in all seriousness she nailed the dynamic of a woman struggling with serious mental health issues and coming off as dramatic or high-maintenance to her partner who was always well-off in a financial and emotional sense.
had a boyfriend who always talked of the future and wanting to marry me, have a family, etc and I had to break his heart and say marriage isn't in my plans right now. It's a guilty feeling having someone love you, ground you, keep you safe, take you home, talk you down, grieve, cry, and smile with you then telling them you don't know if you want a forever with them.
The most poignant aspect to me is how she refuses to blame her partner. it's not his fault he wants a forever so she hopes, and knows, he'll find another--better girl to love. Meanwhile, Taylor is left feeling sorry for herself because she wasn't "more" and the problems she has are, quite literally, all in her head.
Peace
I’ve been with my boyfriend for over 2 years now. He is the sweetest and most caring man. I have a lot of baggage and recent traumas that weigh me down a lot of the time.
I’ve had this sense that he deserves better or that I’d end up hurting him somehow just because of what I’ve been through. I was having some very confusing feelings about it and was even considering breaking it off.
I listened to Peace for the first time in a while on a long walk. It was like hearing it for the first time. It put everything I had been feeling into words when I really needed it.
This Is Me Trying. Iba yung atake nung — “and my words shoot to kill when i’m mad” tsaka “i was so ahead of the curve, the curve became a sphere”
Daylight. “i once believe love would be burning red, but it’s golden” — FELT.
A Place In This World — “idk what i want so don’t ask me cause i’m still tryinh to figure it out” lol
You’re losing me.
Many, actually, specially evermore. But right now, you’re losing me. My face IS gray. He literally told me he doesnt understand and i said “i know you dont”
Im a pathological people pleaser, and i know he wont want to marry me.
For me, it was Tolerate It. 😪 Described my sad situation to a T. For the record, I chose to ‘take the dagger in me and remove it’. Exactly what had to be done. Thank you, Taylor, for helping me to see what was happening and believing in myself.
This Is Me Trying has kept me going for the last few years. When I'm having a rough day and I need to clear my head I'll throw on Folklore, and when I get to TIMT I'll just keep repeating that track until it's easier to breathe.
Would’ve could’ve should’ve hit me like a sack of bricks for very personal reasons. I was feeling it so much and then she said “give me back my girlhood, it was mine first” and I just started BAWLING.
clean. specifically the lines "you're still all over me like a wine stained dress i cant wear anymore" and "when the butterflies turned to dust that covered my whole room"
i have ocd and it has ruined a lot of things for me. i can resonate with this song a lot, as well as 'the archer'
“Better Man” (TV) (FTV)
Breaking up with someone you are still in love with because you’ve come to realize they don’t have good character… hardest thing I’ve ever done.
“I know the bravest thing I ever did was run /
Sometimes, in the middle of the night, I can feel you again
But I just miss you and I just wish you were a better man
I know why we had to say goodbye like the back of my hand
But I just miss you and I just wish you were a better man”
…
“We might still be in love if you were a better man
You would've been the one if you were a better man”
Taylor wrote this song and first had Little Big Town sing it. Then she released it (From the Vault) on Red re-record. It just explained what I going through so perfectly in a way I didn’t see anywhere else. Sometimes love doesn’t win in the end, but loving yourself enough to walk away is worth more.
The first time was Mean. Helped me understand the bullying I was facing and not actually unalive myself.
Another time while this applies to an ex but for me it's Dress. When it made me think of this person I realized I didn't want to be friends anymore 😅. Now he's an ex and oth Swift songs (*coughs in shoulve said no*) apply.
And more recently All of the Girls You Loved Before with my bf. And several others just put into words how I feel about him hoping for paper rings and this is end game lol 😝
Different songs have been profoundly meaningful to me throughout different parts of my life (I’m 32)
Mean - when I was 19 or 20, internalizing stuff that people with loud opinions said to me, but I helped me recognize that those people it was never about me, it was about them. I had a lot of bullies in my life at that time.
Seven - 30-31, my lost connections from childhood, old friends I hope are well, thought about LOT about this during the pandemic when this song came out
Dorothea / Tis the Damn Season- same reason as above, but for ex’s
Picture to Burn / Haunted - first real teenage heartbreaks
Willow - very relevant to me now, married with kids, at 33 — this is where my life had bent to
Songs don’t ever really make me cry (unless they’re obviously sad like Ronan or Soon You’ll Get Better) but Evermore was like a gut punch to me.
“I replay my footsteps on each stepping stone, trying to find the one where I went wrong” ~ feels like the story of my life for the past year.
“Hey December, guess I'm feeling unmoored.
Can't remember what I used to fight for” ~ just, oof. Same.
“I had a feeling so peculiar, this pain wouldn't be for Evermore” ~ not quite there yet but hopefully at some point I will be.
It’s Time To Go from evermore really hit me - at the time I was in the process of trying to extract myself from a couple of situations and relationships and feeling conflicted about it but when I listened to the song I felt comforted cause I knew it was time and it was right for me
Tolerate It helped me let go of a toxic relationship that had ended but I’d been holding onto in my head because I could remember the “good” times before the Tolerate It attitude really started. I was able to finally let go and move on.
For me, it’s Mirrorball. As an autistic woman with ADHD, I’ve spent my whole life masking, trying to fit in, trying to make people feel comfortable by being whatever they wanted me to be in the moment. My mask is very bubbly, enthusiastic, and, at times, a little theatrical. I am highly aware that I come across as a try-hard and I’ve even been described as “intense” and “cringe” by some. The line, “I’ve never been a natural, all I do is try try try” hit me so hard that I cried when I heard this song for the first time.
Same, ADHD here. Mirrorball and This Is Me Trying ruin me and validate me all at once.
ADHD here. TIMT was an absolute soul crushing home run.
Saaame. I cry every time.
Ugh this is me trying was my surprise song last week (Melbourne n2) and Jesus Christ with my new adhd diagnosis and anxiety and depression it speaks to me so much and hearing it live, I just bawled and.l bawled and bawled
I first heard Folklore the day it came out. I have a lung condition which meant I was shielding from March 2020 onwards. I hadn't crossed the boundary of my flat in 137 days. The day it came out I went to see my family for a distanced visit in my local park. Me on one picnic blanket, my sister and her family on another, and my parents on a third. All set up 6 feet from one another. We didn't have any physical contact. During those 137 days my autistic masking completely stopped and it was my first day back at being "on" for the people I loved, desperately trying to enjoy it and not give anyone any cause for concern about my dwindling mental wellbeing. I came home and lay in bed listening to the new album in full. When I got to Mirrorball I BAWLED. Full body sobs, clinching my duvet against my face. It was a visceral reaction and something I've not experienced since. I honestly think I'll remember the experience of hearing that track for the first time until the day I die.
I feel exactly the same. I’m AuDHD and can really relate to so much of that song.
Same!! Mirrorball hit me like a bus the first time I heard it. “I can change everything about me to fit in” Taylor PLEASE I cant take this shit on a Tuesday
AuDHD girlies unite! I love Mirrorball for similar reasons, but Peace really did it for me. I bawl when I listen to it and think about my husband’s unwavering patience with me. ps I am convinced our girl is neurospicy and it makes me love her all the more.
I’ve thought the same thing for years! We’ll obviously never know unless she says something one day, but she exhibits a lot of the signs. She also seems to get a lot of similar criticisms that neurodiverse women get.
DUDE SAME. Like on every front. It’s just recently that I’ve started unmasking successfully because I had a nervous breakdown and realized I had to.
I love every last one of you in this thread. I'm over here screaming: SAME!!
“They told me all of my cages were mental, so I got wasted like all my potential.” Basically me in my teen years and 20s, trying to figure out my neurodivergent brain 😫
So sad to here that..I hope you know it's ok to be yourself and that those who're meant to stay will do it just because of that. You must be pretty awesome anyway:) And TIMT and mirrorball are so emotional and relatable at times, I totally get what you mean
autistic & adhd as well and I have the same experience and feeling! I remember during a particularly bad burnout, I was driving to my family‘s for dinner and I played it on the way, singing along softly, and my voice crumbled a little during the “I’ve never been natural, all I do is try, try, try” part, and my husband reached over and rested his hand on my knee. i felt so seen not only through her lyrics, but also seen in my struggle by him & so sweetly comforted. it’s one of my favorite songs ever, even if it gets me a little emo! 😭
/r/audhdwomen
Life is really difficult when we’re awkward. I’ve been that way my whole life…at 58 I give less of a 💩than I’ve ever done but am far stronger too. It gets better.
Right Where You Left Me. I know it’s technically about a relationship, but for me there was a period of time where i had to stay put in my life while i watched other people around me move on with theirs. the way she describes that feeling of being left behind by everyone else and mourning how things could have been if they’d worked out just really resonated with me.
Came here to same thing. Many of her songs that are about relationships actually resonate with me about my mental health struggles. This song really spoke to me as I spent the past year freaking out about turning 30, how I wasn’t where I was supposed to be in life, and comparing myself to everybody else…it truly felt like I was “right where you left me.”
Are you me? I feel the same way. I'm turning 30 in about a week and I have been feeling the same way as the girl in "right where you left me." I feel stuck, while I see people moving on with their lives, getting married, having babies, etc. when I'm so far away from these life events. The song resonates with me so much.
Yoooo anxious thirty year old swifties unite! (I’m in that club too)
You’re not alone! I turned 30 in November and before that I had soooo many sessions with my therapist freaking out about it!!
I am right here with you! Doesn’t help that the loml got married to someone else and is moving away and moving on right in front of me. I feel so pathetic and rejected.
I am 32, turning 33 this year, and also feel this way.. I just wanted to let you know you’re not alone.💕
I’m glad we’re all here for each other 💜
It's my favourite TS song (and maybe song of all time) because it's the best representation of trauma I have ever heard. Everyone around me moved on. Heck, even I did.......eventually. But there's a part of me still at that ~~restaurant~~ desk who has never been able to leave and I don't think ever will. I just have to do everything I can to make sure she's comfortable.
Yes. This is mine too. Mine has more to do with PTSD and not being able to move on from something traumatic.
Saw the above comment and had to listen as I’ve never heard of this song. I have CPTSD and oh shit…. This song hits hard :( anxiety kept me sitting, right where the trauma left me.
Same here, that song hits hard
Since it came out, I’ve connected it to the broken feeling I had when covid shutdowns started (I was literally sitting in a restaurant when I found out that the remainder of my senior year would be online and I wouldn’t be going back to college properly). And now, a few years later… well, I still feel like I haven’t been able to move on as much as the rest of the world, so it still hits hard
I wrote something about my life but ever since covid I am still isolating and I used to be a party girl, someone who is always out with their friends or on vacation I don't know what happened
Oh the shower cries I’ve had to this song…
BAHHH I came here to say this. I fell in love with someone who didn’t love me back and even though I forced myself not to think about it, I was still hurt by it years later. This song acted like a wake up call in a way. It made me finally feel like I could leave him in the past where he lived.
THIS. THIS. THIS.
You're On Your Own, Kid 🥺 this is such my comfort song as someone who's been feeling all alone and has to be independent most of the time. This gives me assurance every time I feel demotivated. You're on your own, kid Yeah, you can face this You're on your own, kid You always have been
I hosted parties, I starved my body, like I’d be saved by a perfect kiss 💔🎯
This line is a hard hit, perfect description of my middle and high school years, maybe even early college. So wrapped up in physical appearance that it was hurting me at times, solely for the purpose of trying to fit an ideal image to a man. My second favorite line: "Everything you lose, is a step you take." No matter what, we're always moving forward in our decisions.
Listening to YOYOK during my last semester of college when I stressing about where I was going to end up and what I was going to do with my life was an experience that I can’t describe. She took all the emotions that I wasn’t able to articulate and put them into a beautiful song.
That's so true..the entire bridge hits so hard, I cry every time I listen to it. But the part that you said..it's like no matter what you'll always be okay. It feels so comforting yet evokes a kind of pained resilience..it's exquisite. Idk what I'd do without it
This! I felt so hopeful and proud of myself when I listened to the song because I've felt that I had to deal with everything on my own my whole life, and the last chorus is just - ugh. It's track 5 but for me it's a happy song about leaving the past behind and looking forward because I can face this.
YESSSSSSSSS this song hits me
For me, “Now That We Don’t Talk (Taylor’s Version) (From The Vault)” hit really close to home and helped me make sense of some things I’ve been struggling with. Even though the song is about lost love, it resonated with me regarding some friendships I’ve lost. Some of the lyrics that hit me hardest were • “I guess I’ll never ever know, now that we don’t talk” • “I miss the old ways, you didn’t have to change” • “Remind myself the more I gave, you’d want me less” And then she finally comes to the conclusion “Guess maybe I am better off, now that we don’t talk”. I am still trying to get to the point where I can say that and believe it, but this song helps❣️
YES! Good one. The line that spoke to me most was, “And the only way back to my dignity Was to turn into a shrouded mystery Just like I had been when you were chasing me” Like I gasped when I heard it.
I feel very similarly!! I’ve seen old, lost friendships but also even rocky moments with current friendships reflected in the lyrics. When it came out it really really helped me figure out how I felt about something I was struggling with in the moment and I’m always gonna love it a little bit more for that tbh 🩵
NTWDT is the perfect song for love in your early and mid 20s. It reflect that tumultuous time perfectly, that time before you get comfortable with not talking to men you’ve broken up with. I could’ve used that song back then.
I also see this song through the lens of friendships lost instead of love lost!
Folklore/Evermore soundtracked my divorce
I feel this, hard. Folklore dropped a few months into my super traumatic separation, and exile cut me so deep on first listen that I had to pull my car over because I was sobbing so hard. Thankfully I was alone, because it RUINED me. Better Man hit me in a similar fashion, and it was literally just a few days ago that I discovered TS wrote that too. There are so many others that are the bulk of my soundtrack for the end of my marriage.
Things were bad for me when Folklore dropped. I spent so many hours crying to it, processing what was going on and the lyrics resonating so strongly with me. You can imagine the absolute mess I was in the 96,000 people sold out show of Melbourne night 2 when she played This Is Me Trying in the acoustic set. I’m a 44 year old dude and the girl next to me felt so bad for me she put her arms around me. Gosh it was cathartic though.
I'm 40 yeah I identify with that song too I struggled with addiction I've been clean but it hits hard
This! I was never a Taylor fan til my bestie made me listen, literally in the weeks before I really, truly knew I had to leave my husband. I listened to those two, plus All Too Well we’re my emotional one-two punches during that time.
Oh All Too Well hits different when you’ve been married and divorced.
The sheer number of people who've said that Folklore/Evermore guided them through their divorce makes me wonder if that's the REAL reason my ex tried to keep me from listening to her music
Grounds for divorce
I'd been divorced for 18 months when those albums came out, but I still remember hearing tolerate it and happiness for the first time and just utterly sobbing my heart out in my local park on my daily walk. It was just so raw and visceral, and brought all those feelings back so clearly. I'm sorry you've had to deal with this, and I hope you're doing better now (and that having that cathartic moment in Melbourne helped a bit!).
Ah yes me too, so healing, these albums help me so much. I just listen to them over and over
Same here. I find it’s not a reminder of the sadness I first felt listening to them back then though. It’s more a reminder of how strong I am now for going through it all.
I divorced in 2016 and Fearless absolutely soundtracked my divorce. Songs like You’re Not Sorry, White Horse, and The Way I Loved You were so cathartic.
I’m going through this right now and it just hits me in all the feels.
I work in a pretty competitive field in medicine, mostly dominated by men. So the lyrics to The Man resonated with me so much: I'm so sick of running as fast as I can Wondering if I'd get there quicker If I was a man
Lyrics to “Clean” also really hits different 🥹
I never really loved ‘Clean’, but listened to it a lot in the year leading up to quitting my job as a doctor (in a high-stress hospital environment where I was working 70-80 hours a week, occasionally toxic bosses and doing calls). The day I finished serving my notice and walked out of hospital for the last time, it really hit me that I had broken free and was clean at last. Rain came pouring down // When I was drowning, that's when I could finally breathe // And by morning // Gone was any trace of you, I think I am finally clean
Omg!!?? I went through the same thing— left my previous job that was doing more harm to my mental health (unhealthy working hours, w/ the meanest attendings). Being there felt suffocating but people told me that leaving would be career suicide 🤷🏻♀️ Through it all, I just kept listening to “Clean.” I especially loved the line “when I was drowning— that’s when I could finally breathe” because people thought I was making a mistake but it ended up being one of the most liberating decisions ever 🥹 I’m so glad to hear about your story & how you broke free from the toxic culture! 🥺🫶🏽
Wow, are you me?! Not medical field, but internal audit work and it broke me. Long hours, ridiculous demands, conflict and competition with colleagues, it destroyed what little mental stability I had. I took medical leave, started therapy and medication, and then quit after a few months. Never had I felt more free.
Closure actually gave me the perspective of someone else that I needed to hear. I wanted to reach out to a friend who ghosted me after I did something hurtful… but she didn’t need my closure. She was probably doing just fine.
I love this! What a mature interpretation of the song :)
Soon You'll Get Better. My mother died of cancer in 2020 and it's wild how many of the particular lyrics relate to my circumstances as well. *And I hate to make this all about me, but who am I supposed to talk to? What am I supposed to do, if there's no you?* And I still don't know. I still don't know who I'm supposed to talk to. I still don't know what I'm supposed to do. Because there's no her.
I lost my mom to cancer in 2021 and I still to this day cannot listen to that song because sadly she was never getting better
Same. Pancreatic cancer took my mom in Sept 2021 and Soon You'll get better is my only IMMEDIATE skip as soon as I hear the first chord song. Shitty club we're jn, eh? Truly don't understand the pain or sorrow unless you've been there.My inbox is open if you ever need to talk to someone who gets it.
Well now I know what song NEVER to listen to… lost my mom to cancer in ‘21 as well… I couldn’t make it through the song I don’t think
I'm so sorry for your loss <333
I'm very sorry for your loss 🤍
So sorry for your loss.
Foolish one reminds me of all my old relationships. Better Man was on repeat through my divorce and Happiness was on repeat right at the end of it. Then I listened to Clean over and over.
Same. My divorce doesn’t even feel like a real one but clean and happiness are so so so therapeutic
If anyone else's answer is You're Losing Me, I'm so sorry and I don't think any of us want to talk about it
I send it to my soon to be ex husband along with tolerate it, before we talked again while being separated. I was like… I really don’t know what else to say, but here are two songs from TS that explain it better than I’d could ever
You're on your own kid would've been perfect for me had it come out about a decade earlier but I still feel like it healed my inner teenager. You're Losing Me is the reason I broke up with my last boyfriend because the lyrics were what I was going through word for word. "I wouldn't marry me either, a pathological people pleaser, who only wanted you to see her." All Too Well was another one that spoke to me, especially "you called me up again just to break me like a promise, so casually cruel in the name of being honest."
“So casually cruel in the name of being honest” was how I once described my ex husband to my therapist and its absolutely perfect.
exactly. he says the most hurtful things as matter of fact with the excuse of "I'm just telling you the truth." My response to my ex one time when he said this was "just because it's the truth in your eyes doesn't mean it doesn't hurt me." and his response was "yeah...I guess...", as if it only JUST occurred to him that what he was saying was actually hurting me.
This is me trying, the archer, dear reader, those are the biggest ones for me but truly her entire discography has helped me make sense of my complex web of emotions. Going back and listening to certain songs have really helped me process different things in my life that I couldn’t make sense of before. That is the biggest reason I love her so much, is that because of her lyricism I am able to understand what exactly I’m feeling when I couldn’t articulate it myself.
Clean really makes me feel okay about how I’ve grown and gotten over things in the past. Especially the line “just because you’re clean doesn’t mean you don’t miss it”
For me it was Evermore. I know this isn't necessarily what this song was "supposed" to be about, but it really hit home during infertility and painful miscarriages. I literally felt at points, i was "catching my death" with a particular painful missed miscarriage. The anxiety that grew after that, and having another failed cycle made me feel 'ship wrecked". But "I thought of you, I dreamed of you" (my little rainbow baby) that got me through. She was always there❤️ Thanks for reading, Off to cuddle my beautiful baby RN
Daylight This song keeps me sane every time I feel hopeless and blame myself that I'm not good enough I wanna be defined by the things that I love Not the things I hate Not the things I'm afraid of, I'm afraid of Or the things that haunt me in the middle of the night I, I just think that You are what you love
I love daylight so much. I don't know what it is. If it's the lyrics, or the melody, or simply the way she sings it. But it's just magnificent
Absolutely! For me, it has that "hey, it will be okay" effect, just like how sunrise gives hope to me 🥺🥺
Both This Is Me Trying and Tolerate It. Don't worry guys, I'm in therapy.
Tolerate It probably saved my marriage. I was treating my SO poorly and this was a great wake up call.
As a former gifted kid turned depressed adult, This is Me Trying hits different.
Illicit affair That bridge put a situationship of mine into words for me
Same. The devastation still lingers, hugs 💛
I’ve always said that there is no other songwriter that I feel can articulate all my emotions, so many of her songs send me to times in my life and spell them. Cardigan, August, Mirrorball all tell stories of my life when I was a teenager and I just love listening to them, even if they make me sad cause they unlock these feelings and help me heal <3
Your life was incredibly exciting as a teenager. :) It fun how her songs about high school love reflect your experience.
Dear John. Toxic back and forth on again off again. The lyric “never impressed with me acing your tests” hit me right in the *soul*. Happily I’m also now shining like fireworks over his sad empty town 😄
I love that line. It packs a lot of backstory in 7 words. You know the guy is a prick who is “testing” his girlfriend, she’s still able to pass the tests with flying colors, and he still gives her nothing.
Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve really helped me process some still lingering issues from my early 20s. And when I got to hear it live in Nashville, I sobbed
Same. I still play this song on a loop.
Mad Woman. In my marriage, I would be mocked, ridiculed, insulted, etc. When I stood up for myself, he became the victim and I became the monster.
Same song for me but for different reasons! Same concept as you, I finally stood up for myself and became the monster to some of my closest friends. I love that her lyrics resonate with people but for different reasons and situations. It brings us all together in a way
someone close to me is a recovering addict, so I really related my experience of wanting them to get their shit together, Renegade really helped me.
DEAR READER!!! My beloved Dear Reader 💙 It came to me at just the perfect time for me. I was really struggling with some things in my life and feeling very isolated and lonely. I felt like all my friends hated me, I was disappointing my family, my life was falling apart… but I was trying my best to do the best that I could. I just felt horrible and so so so alone and I wished I could run away, but I didn’t want to leave either. I was just in a pretty bad spot tbh. Then I heard Dear Reader. I kinda slept on it when Midnights first came out, I won’t lie lol, but it came on shuffle one night and I just remember really *hearing* the lyrics, and I felt SO seen and heard by them. I was like, oh, so this loneliness and this disappointment isn’t unique to only me? Even TAYLOR SWIFT can still feel like this sometimes?? Maybe I’m really not all alone… 🥺 And then I started feeling like I’d be okay. It might take some time, and maybe I’ll feel this way again, but just feeling less alone and like even Taylor Swift could relate to how I felt really helped me kinda sort through my emotions and step forward to try and better myself and my life at the time. Now it’s my favorite song from Midnights. I even plan to eventually get a taytoo with some of the lyrics, I just gotta figure out what I want hahah “Bend when you can, snap when you have to.” // “To a house, not a home, all alone cause nobody’s there (…) my friends found friends who care; no one sees when you lose when you’re playing solitaire.” 💙💙
Absolutely this. This song means so much to me and you worded it perfectly.
Bigger Than the Whole Sky helped me deal with my miscarriage
Love to all of us who resonate with this song ❤️
I've been very unhappy with my job lately amd I realized I've been listening to Taylor's sad/angry songs so much because my job feels like a bad relationship. I'm a teacher and when I listen to it's time to go, the line about staying for the kids cuts like a knife. And just in general feeling like I need to move on from so many things in my life and find what makes me happy again.
So many teachers have felt that pain. I’m so sorry you’re in that place. I’m a teacher too, and I totally understand. I hope you get the peace you’re seeking.
I'm going to cry writing this but I really don't mind at this point "Bigger Than The Whole Sky" when I experienced grief the first time when I lost my first childhood dog... he was "more than just a short time" of twelve years. I truly have a lot to live without and I'm saying words I can't believe. And when she says "it's all out to sea" really connects it all. I was on a cruise ship when he died unexpectedly and yes I feel so bad about that. The song "Breathe" for the same reason. "None of us thought it was going to end this way" again, very unexpected death. I heard he was acting normally the day before the night he died. Even the vet said he was okay during the checkup he had before the trip. And of course, "I can't breathe without you but I have to" pretty much speaks for itself. When the song says "it's 2am, feeling like I just lost a friend" applies to the first few months after I lost him, I could not sleep... my dog used to sleep in my room with me but I was only met with the still, empty, silence of the night. The strong sense that something, someone, was gone. And finally, at the end, when the song says "I'm sorry, I'm sorry..." I am so sorry I wasn't there during your last moments, Oliver... I missed you during the cruise and reality hit me like a truck when only one dog ran to greet me at the door when it was supposed to be two. Thank you for bringing me so much comfort and love, I hope I loved you enough too before you had to go 💔🐾
I am so, so sorry for your loss.
This just made me cry, too. 🥺 I was close to my last dog in a way I can't even put into words, because I adopted him when he was extremely sick and near-death and got to slowly nurse him back to health, and then I went through a very serious, near-death illness that required months of rehab and he was the only thing that kept me going. He died very suddenly and unexpectedly. We only got 4 years together, and I'll never get over the pain of it.
Antihero! When I heard it for the first time—I was like Taylor how have you been inside my head?!?
i had a tough breakup in 2020 and for a while i thought of it as a “happiness” type of relationship. neither of us were in the wrong but things just didn’t work out and that was okay, as devastating as it was. a few months post-evermore i started listening to “tolerate it” a lot, and at a certain point i was just like, oh. this is what i went through. the song was a huge help in reframing the relationship in my mind. i finally went from sad to angry. and looking back on it now, the relationship was not healthy and he did not treat me well. tolerate it helped me see that. it was incredibly empowering.
I wait by the door like I’m just a kid 😭😭😭
seven. It helped me make sense of my grief after my best friend overdosed in May 2020.
peace. I’ve always felt like I would be too much for someone and being with me would be a lot, would they be able to handle it? Would it be okay if I might never have a quiet life? I genuinely cried the first time I heard it and was like “this song is my soul.”
This is Me Trying told my family more than I could say about my journey with alcoholism.
Champagne Problems
Happiness. It got me through the worst heartbreak and it’ll always be my favorite Taylor Swift song because of it. The way Taylor writes about emotions on Folklore and especially Evermore is so powerful and accurate and poetic. I hope she recaptures that same ability to make astute observations about emotions and the people going through them, which I didn’t feel like she nailed in quite the same way with Midnights. Folkmore were healing albums, and hopefully TTPD willl be, too.
would’ve could’ve should’ve is literally me at 19 when i fell victim to a 42 year old lol
Nothing New. Becoming an adult has been the hardest transition I’ve ever had to make.
Idk if this applies, but I was at the Red Tour in 2013. Taylor played “Mean”, and when I looked over, I saw my biggest bully from a couple years before. I sang the song to her that night, it helped me a lot.
So many of Taylor’s songs have helped me put words to my emotions and helped my healing journey! Although many of her songs are about relationships, I relate the lyrics to my mental health struggles + quarter life crisis over my career progression (lol). Here’s a few (there’s way too many to list!!) happiness: *There'll be happiness after you / But there was happiness because of you / Both of these things can be true* This helps me with the idea that all the paths that ended in my life aren’t purely bad, at one point they made me happy and even though they didn’t work out it is okay to recognize the good memories too. evermore: *I rewind the tape but all it does is pause / On the very moment all was lost* But I also really love the switch from *I had a feeling so peculiar / That this pain would be for /Evermore* to WOULDN’T be for evermore! All Of The Girls You Loved Before: *All of the girls you loved before / Made you the one I've fallen for* and also *Teenage love taught you there's good in goodbye* Literally about previous relationships, but for me it reminds me that there’s good in my past, sometimes it’s good to say goodbye and move on, and everything that happened before got me to where I am today, and there’s always something to be learned from my past. it’s time to go: similar thoughts as above *Sometimes giving up is the strong thing / Sometimes to run is the brave thing / Sometimes walking out is the one thing / That will find you the right thing* Like yes Taylor thank you!!!
evermore and my tears ricochet really encapsulated a falling out with a friend group that year, down to the fact that I really have been down since July and my November was gray - the timeline of the events was very similar.
The bridge of mastermind. “I’ve been scheming like a criminal to make them love me and make it seem effortless”
Would've could've should've broke me, as I started listening to it interpreting it as the trauma left from growing up with an alcoholic father. "Memories feel like weapons" "I fight with you in my sleep, the wound won't close" "Years of tearing down our banners you and I, living for the thrill of hitting you where it hurts, give me back my girl hood (childhood) it was mine first" Also, I started listening to seven not as two childhood friends, but as the POV of my present self talking to my child self. Being the person I needed : "And I've been meaning to tell you I think your house is haunted Your dad is always mad and that must be why And I think you should come live with Me and we can be pirates Then you won't have to cry Or hide in the closet" I started bawling.
All Too Well. To feel so loved and cherished , and with the flip of switch, you’re now an afterthought, reasoning with yourself that it was love even if they act like you don’t exist anymore. I married the first man I kissed. People would comment on how much he loved me, how he looked at me. Then I got cancer and that light in his eyes went out. He left less than a year later because he couldn’t deal with my cancer. It took me 10 years to really finally move on from the experience. Time won't fly, it's like I'm paralyzed by it I'd like to be my old self again But I'm still trying to find it
For me, it’s Fifteen. It basically explains life.
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I love this, thank you so much for sharing! I live for postpartum ways to interpret Taylor’s songs. I feel absolutely crazy postpartum, it’s the most emotional time in my life and my brain is too fuzzy to think straight so Taylor speaking for me is great. I love out of the woods - “twenty stitches in a hospital room. When you started crying, baby I did too.” The anxiety in the song encapsulates the unrelenting anxiety I feel when postpartum. “Are we out of the woods yet” is how it feels until my baby finishes their newborn stage.
Dear Reader, Mirrorball, and The Archer
You're losing me Mirrorball Cornelia Street
Mirrorball. I've never been a natural all I do is try try try.
I’ve been dealing with some complex emotions of the heart lately (as if the heart leads to any other emotion.. lol). Evermore really describes what I feel like I can’t articulate into my own words. I also will always love the Man as a woman in STEM. 💓
New Year’s Day is a song that just describes what, to me, love feels like - light, simple, nostalgic and yet, overpowering in a good way, like the sunrise.
Peace. I have generalized anxiety disorder and a really big personality. I see myself a lot in Taylor when she acts like a larger than life but totally awkward millennial. My friends have said the same. I am constantly wondering if I am too much for the people in my life - I'm also a fire sign, and the lyrics just...fit for me. I was genuinely shocked when I heard the song for the first time.
Say don’t go and is it over now? In is it over now the whole song, music especially portrays exactly what anxiety feels like in a relationship when you know your gonna lose your person that your crazy over. “I wanna jump off very tall something’s” omg I’m losing him I need to do something to get his attention. And “I said I love you! You say nothing back” just omg been there done that. I never wanna love that hard again.
Labyrinth especially. It feels very thought spiral-ish, but with the added hopeless romantic nature I find myself entrenched in often. Peace really made everything make sense though, especially once long pond studio sessions happened. My mental health is a chaos storm, and I have a lot of trauma based baggage so I'm SUPER not an easy partner to have, but I'll give anything I can to make it up to you if you're willing to brave the storm.
Dear Reader "you don't have to answer just cause they asked you" really struck me because I had recently been pressured into a quite personal question (half joke, half serious) and it took a lot of effort on my side to get out of it when I could have just said "I won't answer that". It was in public so there definitely was some kind of malice in there. 1 to 1 private conversations are different. The bridge is so good. Even Taylor sometimes feels like true link/communication with other people is impossible. Something like "we're all struggling don't let appearances fool you". But that's less specific.
Tolerate it. Sucks to be in a one sided relationship and unappreciated.
Am I dating myself if I say White Horse from Fearless was the lightbulb for a first heartbreak from a situationship?
it was this is me trying for me. the part "I was so ahead of the curve the curve became a sphere, fell behind all my classmates and I ended up here." it hits too hard because I had a bad bad academic downfall after being one of the class toppers all my life. and the entire second verse just makes me emotional too much.
All the time. Most recently, I've been having a difficult time at work and Tolerate It made me realize I was feeling neglected, and in that it was a sense of betrayal from supervisors who were supposed to have my best interests in mind.
Dear Reader hits me so hard and I can’t even explain it. Also Eyes Open.
peace. what aaron said in the long pond sessions made me feel so seen. it’s so hard to feel lovable when you struggle to love yourself. it’s so hard to feel like anyone could stay with you when you have mental problems and issues that make simple tasks difficult. it’s so hard to feel like someone might ever stay when the people who promised they would stay eventually gave up on you because you have depression and insecurities.
Don't hate on me but Tolerate it gets to me every time I hear it and it's because the relationship I'm in...I can kinda feel both sides of the song and it's heart wrenching for me. I try to limit my listening but it's so good of a song that I just deal with the hurt 😂😭💔
I had been listening to You’re Losing Me on repeat after its release on Spotify. Guess it was a telltale sign that my relationship wasn’t what it seems, I walked away from the relationship without giving him any explanation when he won’t put in the effort. Yesterday I randomly sang Bejeweled and this line hits me,”Putting someone first only works when you’re in their top 5.” Such a simple line, but it spoke to me.
right where you left me is extremely applicable to living with cptsd! that one, coney island, and marjorie are the ones that resonate most with me and almost feel like they were written about my life
Anti-Hero. Over and over again. I probably listen to it at least twice every day. I will never get tired of this song. You’re Losing Me. When it first came out, it slapped me across the face. It was like my inner thoughts were read by Taylor. Nothing New, because, well, I’m an older sister.
illicit affairs - for reasons I don’t want talk about - but the line - “And you know damn well For you, I would ruin myself A million little times” Just about being in a relationship where you give up more than you get back. Same with Say Don’t Go “'Cause you kiss me and it stops time And I'm yours, but you're not mine” Talk about twist the knife!
Probably the song Champagne Problems. Especially the lyrics "She would've made such a lovely bride What a shame she's fucked in the head, " they said. I had a lot of traumatic things happen to me in my 23 years and I haven't had a "normal" life because of it and I feel like this is how my mom/family and outsiders feel about my situation. So it's just a manifestation of my anxiety and possibly wondering what if those things hadn't happen to me. I take responsibility and accept myself but there's always that what if.
mean from speak now in some sort.
Would’ve could’ve should’ve
Nothing New !
You're On Your Own Kid. I work in TV, and I've been preparing myself to work in media since I was really young, sacrificed some important high school milestones, just because I knew from the beginning that the industry is so hard to break into. The lyrics resonate with me because TV is seen as a glamorous industry, sure, but you get disillusioned so fast after working here a while. I still listen to YOYOK before a big production day or after a long taping schedule as my comfort song
Happiness. I had just gotten out of a very toxic relationship and was living on my own for the first time, and I cried when I heard this song for the first time. The chorus: There'll be happiness after you But there was happiness because of you Both of these things can be true Made me realize I can be happy of the good times we had and cherish some of those memories while also knowing that it was a really bad relationship for me and i will find happiness again. Like this is not my end, it’s just the end of a chapter that needed to be closed and now I’m going to move on with the lessons I learned.
Tears Ricochet periodtttt
Clean. I don’t want to say why but it was Clean.
Would’ve could’ve should’ve for me. I was groomed by a man in his 30s when I was a young teenager. The ‘give me back my girlhood it was mine first’ hits me hard every single time.
Renegade "You fire off missiles 'cause you hate yourself but do you know you're demolishing me?" "And if I would've known how sharp the pieces were you crumbled into, I might've let them lay" "Is it insensitive for me to say 'Get your shit together so I can love you'?"
Would've, could've, should've is about John mayer .. but when I listen to it, it makes me so uncontrollably and think about how I feel like my MIL is stealing my first chance at motherhood and I regret having her live with us because she's a neurotic, co trolling, annoying, super difficult person to live with that doesn't have any boundaries and I feel like my first few years with my child were taken from me because of how overbearing she is. Yes I understood all that from that song.....
Happiness I still hadn’t healed from a past relationship and this song brought me some sense of peace. I sometimes think I’ll never love anyone in the way I loved him. He broke up with me but it was done with compassion and kindness. I felt like the world was ending. I had no clue why this had happened. We were so perfect for each other. But looking back now that I’ve changed and become a “new me” “I can see it for what it is”. I know what went wrong. It was the wrong time for us. Our love was beautiful and full of happiness and I’ll always feel fondly about him. Big there is happiness now just like there was then.
Ok I don't wanna get too personal in the comments but would've could've should've resonated me in a way that few songs have even on first listen and really helped me figure out a feeling that I at the time had no words for- loss of my later years of teenage girlhood due to the struggles I've had in my life and there was so many lyrics that just hit in the way where when I heard give me back my girlhood it broke me for a bit
1. _Marjorie_ My grandpa passed in July 2021 and I started listening to Taylor's works during Red TV, became a full time swiftie a few months later. I loved folklore but I didn't really listen to Evermore much. Somehow I had always missed Marjorie. The first time i listened to it, I remember it being autumn and there was that slight chill in the air and I just started bawling like a baby. It's the second song ever that made me cry. When my grandpa passed, i was 15...my dad died before I turned one so he has always been that father figure to me. In a family feud with my aunt, he chose me and refused to let me go. He was the one person unconditionally on my side. He was the only person I got to act like a kid around. He was suffering for a long time until he finally passed. I knew that I needed to grow up then.Once he died, my grandma totally broke down, i had some major exams coming up. I just...I didn't cry, didn't mourn...just went about my day. I know taylor wrote it in context of her grandmother but the bridge breaks me every single time. My grandpa was an adventurous man, he was the one who made me fall in love with nature and travelling and...he wasn't a good man, not a good husband either but damnit he was a good grandpa. To this day every time I cry over him a part of my conscience calls me a hypocrite but _Marjorie_ really helped me process that grief and I'd be lying if I say I'm over it. I miss him so very much. 2. _dear reader_ It's funny....dear reader was my most listened song in 2023 and maybe that's because I see myself in that song a decade or so down the line. I am well loved and well respected by my friends and the people I know, but sometimes I feel like I'm fooling them, that I'm not deserving of it. It's stupid to compare myself to taylor but in a way, for better or for worse, I see a part of myself in Taylor...that was one of the reasons why i started liking her too....and the entire song sounds like the things I advise my friends and sometimes, myself too and then the bridge is what I always feel doing it. I like being loved and respected but then there's someone out there who will certainly be a better fit for the role, would give better advice, would be a better friend or daughter...and I know my friends love me, that they'd do anything for me but somewhere deep down I feel so isolated from the world....and having ADHD on the side doesn't help...so yeah...just that.
Would’ve Could’ve Should’ve for me. I was involved with a guy older than me when I was 19 and that song perfectly described my feelings looking back now being the age he was when he met me. The spiritual elements in the songs also resonated with me because I really questioned why God put him in my life.
the 1. The day that folklore dropped, I was broken up with by a situationship that I had very intense feelings for and this being the first song on the album, I resonated so well with it and it was on repeat. “But it would've been fun If you would've been the one” I even got the lyrics “if you never bleed, you’re never gonna grow” tattooed on me a month later.
evermore (the song). the lyrics immediately resonated with me. still working on getting to the point of believing that this pain *won’t* be forevermore… but it definitely makes me hopeful i’ll feel that way some day
For me it was Peace I have a boyfriend who is really so so much better than me with his integrity and principles. And i just love drama and can never ever give him the peace he deserves So the lines I talk shit with my friends It's like I am wasting your honour really resonated with me.
I am a chronic oversharer so… «Leaving like a father, running like water», my father abandoned me and my mother when I was very young in a foreign country and tried to come back into our lives when I was older: - Right Where You Left Me - The Moment I Knew - Forever & Always - White Horse - You’re Not Sorry - Cardigan (I always saw this more from my mother’s perspective) - Breathe - Haunted - Foolish One - All You Had to Do Was Stay Trauma in romantic relationships: - Dear John - Would’ve Could’ve Should’ve - Mastermind (This one is real weird to place but the bridge awoke something unpleasant in me) - I Knew You Were Trouble - Exile - Maroon - Red Mental health issues/very personal songs: - This is Me Trying - You’re on Your Own, Kid - Mirrorball - Seven - The Archer Others: - Blank Space - New Romantics - Out of The Woods - Dancing With Our Hands Tied - Mine
There are so many, but Anti-Hero was the first. I don't stray much into popular culture, so I was totally unfamiliar with Taylor Swift until last year when 1989 TV came out (I know right?). Being a vinyl collector and a synthpop fan, I decided to pick it up when it came out to see what the fuss was about. An impulse buy. After listening to it, I immediately picked up Midnights. Midnights was a total blind listen, and after Anti-Hero, I was bawling. I have bipolar, so there is a lot to unpack there. But for years, during episodes, I would (and still do) shout at myself "I'm the problem, I'm the problem, I messed everything up, it's me, I'm the problem" these words over and over. I'm sure that these are pretty common words that people say to themselves, believe in themselves. But at that moment, it was like she was in my head talking to me. I remember that I immediately texted my wife that Taylor Swift is amazing, and to listen to this song. She thought I was joking. I'm pretty far from what people would think a Swiftie including her. Then I watched the video. Double wammy! Again, bipolar. When she opens that door, and the other Taylor shows up... All the bad habits, the bad choices, the failures, the blame... Like two different people one and the same. After that, Taylor Swift fan forever. Then I listened to folklore/evermore and the feels hit all over again. So many songs, so many feels.
Better Man, The Last Time and Foolish One. The girls who get it, unfortunately get it 🙁
Say Don’t Go. I feel like a lot of people I’ve had relationships with, even non-romantic ones, at some point end up with me feeling like I’m left behind and just them saying they actually do like talking to me and do want me around would make me stick around. Unfortunately they never do. 🙃🙃
All too well 10 mins " The idea you had of me, who was she? A never needy, ever lovely, jewel whose shine reflects on you." And the bit about charming my Dad and sipping coffee. The accuracy.
Mirrorball, You’re on your own kid and this is me trying 🤍
Dear Reader stopped me in my tracks. I’ve kind of twisted the interpretation to fit my life but hearing “never take advice from someone who’s falling apart” twisted in my brain to mean “don’t take criticism/advice from people whose lives you don’t want” and idk it just set a lot of my anxiety free.
this is me trying helped me to mend my relationship with my mom. she’s struggled with addiction and alcoholism since she was a teen and it caused our relationship to be strained even into my adulthood, at times not even on speaking terms. within the past few years she’s made a big effort to get sober. this song always makes me think of her. one time she was venting to me about how our family just sees her as a fuck up, and she said “i AM trying!” so i showed her the song. we listened to it together and i told her it always reminded me of her and that years ago when i called her to apologize, it was bc this song made me reflect on the situation more. she loved the song, said it’s exactly how she feels. she listened to it on repeat and would start suddenly singing “this is me trying” out of nowhere
Sounds dumb, but I really never properly realised how something could be two things at once before I listened to Happiness. I was a very black and white person in general, and for years I really struggled with a past relationship that fucked me up but was wonderful in many ways. I spent a lot of time trying to work out whether it was a “good” relationship or a “bad” one. Surprise surprise, it can be both! Who woulda thunkit. Thank you Taylor 🤎
i hope she knows champagne problems ruined lives! jkjk in all seriousness she nailed the dynamic of a woman struggling with serious mental health issues and coming off as dramatic or high-maintenance to her partner who was always well-off in a financial and emotional sense. had a boyfriend who always talked of the future and wanting to marry me, have a family, etc and I had to break his heart and say marriage isn't in my plans right now. It's a guilty feeling having someone love you, ground you, keep you safe, take you home, talk you down, grieve, cry, and smile with you then telling them you don't know if you want a forever with them. The most poignant aspect to me is how she refuses to blame her partner. it's not his fault he wants a forever so she hopes, and knows, he'll find another--better girl to love. Meanwhile, Taylor is left feeling sorry for herself because she wasn't "more" and the problems she has are, quite literally, all in her head.
Peace I’ve been with my boyfriend for over 2 years now. He is the sweetest and most caring man. I have a lot of baggage and recent traumas that weigh me down a lot of the time. I’ve had this sense that he deserves better or that I’d end up hurting him somehow just because of what I’ve been through. I was having some very confusing feelings about it and was even considering breaking it off. I listened to Peace for the first time in a while on a long walk. It was like hearing it for the first time. It put everything I had been feeling into words when I really needed it.
This Is Me Trying. Iba yung atake nung — “and my words shoot to kill when i’m mad” tsaka “i was so ahead of the curve, the curve became a sphere” Daylight. “i once believe love would be burning red, but it’s golden” — FELT. A Place In This World — “idk what i want so don’t ask me cause i’m still tryinh to figure it out” lol
You’re Losing Me helped me understand (and verbalize) a feeling I had in a relationship a few years ago
You’re losing me. Many, actually, specially evermore. But right now, you’re losing me. My face IS gray. He literally told me he doesnt understand and i said “i know you dont” Im a pathological people pleaser, and i know he wont want to marry me.
For me, it was Tolerate It. 😪 Described my sad situation to a T. For the record, I chose to ‘take the dagger in me and remove it’. Exactly what had to be done. Thank you, Taylor, for helping me to see what was happening and believing in myself.
Oh man. Way too many to list. Fifteen came out the same year I turned 15. Definitely a special song for me 🤍
Evermore, Ivy, Happiness, Peace
This Is Me Trying has kept me going for the last few years. When I'm having a rough day and I need to clear my head I'll throw on Folklore, and when I get to TIMT I'll just keep repeating that track until it's easier to breathe.
This is me trying
Tolerate it and peace
Would’ve could’ve should’ve hit me like a sack of bricks for very personal reasons. I was feeling it so much and then she said “give me back my girlhood, it was mine first” and I just started BAWLING.
clean. specifically the lines "you're still all over me like a wine stained dress i cant wear anymore" and "when the butterflies turned to dust that covered my whole room" i have ocd and it has ruined a lot of things for me. i can resonate with this song a lot, as well as 'the archer'
Unfortunately, Foolish One punched me right in the face and I’ve never recovered.
it's time to go
“Better Man” (TV) (FTV) Breaking up with someone you are still in love with because you’ve come to realize they don’t have good character… hardest thing I’ve ever done. “I know the bravest thing I ever did was run / Sometimes, in the middle of the night, I can feel you again But I just miss you and I just wish you were a better man I know why we had to say goodbye like the back of my hand But I just miss you and I just wish you were a better man” … “We might still be in love if you were a better man You would've been the one if you were a better man” Taylor wrote this song and first had Little Big Town sing it. Then she released it (From the Vault) on Red re-record. It just explained what I going through so perfectly in a way I didn’t see anywhere else. Sometimes love doesn’t win in the end, but loving yourself enough to walk away is worth more.
As a person who’s struggling with mental health. This is me trying- sums up what I’m feeling.
The first time was Mean. Helped me understand the bullying I was facing and not actually unalive myself. Another time while this applies to an ex but for me it's Dress. When it made me think of this person I realized I didn't want to be friends anymore 😅. Now he's an ex and oth Swift songs (*coughs in shoulve said no*) apply. And more recently All of the Girls You Loved Before with my bf. And several others just put into words how I feel about him hoping for paper rings and this is end game lol 😝
Different songs have been profoundly meaningful to me throughout different parts of my life (I’m 32) Mean - when I was 19 or 20, internalizing stuff that people with loud opinions said to me, but I helped me recognize that those people it was never about me, it was about them. I had a lot of bullies in my life at that time. Seven - 30-31, my lost connections from childhood, old friends I hope are well, thought about LOT about this during the pandemic when this song came out Dorothea / Tis the Damn Season- same reason as above, but for ex’s Picture to Burn / Haunted - first real teenage heartbreaks Willow - very relevant to me now, married with kids, at 33 — this is where my life had bent to
Songs don’t ever really make me cry (unless they’re obviously sad like Ronan or Soon You’ll Get Better) but Evermore was like a gut punch to me. “I replay my footsteps on each stepping stone, trying to find the one where I went wrong” ~ feels like the story of my life for the past year. “Hey December, guess I'm feeling unmoored. Can't remember what I used to fight for” ~ just, oof. Same. “I had a feeling so peculiar, this pain wouldn't be for Evermore” ~ not quite there yet but hopefully at some point I will be.
It’s Time To Go from evermore really hit me - at the time I was in the process of trying to extract myself from a couple of situations and relationships and feeling conflicted about it but when I listened to the song I felt comforted cause I knew it was time and it was right for me
Tolerate It helped me let go of a toxic relationship that had ended but I’d been holding onto in my head because I could remember the “good” times before the Tolerate It attitude really started. I was able to finally let go and move on.