Throughout elementary school and middle I was not what you called “cool” or “fashionable” for that matter. I was dork and extremely awkward around people so I found myself a lot of the time really misunderstood by people around me. When the 7th grade rolled in, I moved in a new community which also had a new school. I hated everything about it, people were mean, everyone had an established clique and there were many times of awkward laps around the middle school lunch tables trying to find an open seat. I managed to friend a group of girls that were in most of my classes, they seemed nice and welcoming. After awhile, they began talking about me, even using a code name to talk about me in front of me. I wasn’t mean, I wasn’t dishonest, I was just a nice kid trying to make new friends. The day I found out about them I started sitting alone where no one could see me. I came home crying and begging my parents not to make me go back, which I new wasn’t possible. They made me feel so worthless and just awful. But, of these girls, there was one that didn’t participate in any of the gossip or mean things, she sought after me just to talk and listen. I started talking to her more and more and a little time before we started talking, I bought my first electric guitar and told her about it. She was so excited about it that she came over to my house that day and we both tried to play it. We were awful, but it showed our early love for music and from then on she became my best friend. As our friendship grew, so did our music. We took guitar lessons together,exchanged mix CDs weekly, and just made music our own language. But out of all the artists that we talked about and listened to, one artist that we admired so much and still to this day is Ms. Taylor Swift. She got us through everything, break-ups, friendship trouble, and our own insecurities. If there was something we were feeling, Taylor had a song for it. In our birthday, christmas, and random holiday cards you can always find a T-Swizzle lyric in it. We grew up listening to your songs and can still recite all your songs by heart, we can even play them on guitar together. Taylor Swift is something special between my best friend and I, and she has taught us how to be Fearless in multiple aspects of our lives. She and I are both graduating this year, making our friendship 6 years to date, we still turn up Taylor Swift’s albums in our cars and sing at the top of our lungs. I bought a key for my best friend because we are both graduating this year and facing a lot of major transitions in our lives, and lately she has been going through a lot in her life. I bought the key to encourage her and remind her of being Fearless and what it has meant in our lives. It took me a long time to figure out the right world to put on the key, but once again Ms. Swift comes through in her album Fearless where in the insert she writes this:
To me, “FEARLESS” is not the absence of fear. It’s not being completely unafraid. To me, FEARLESS is having fears. FEARLESS is having doubts. Lots of them. To me, FEARLESS is living in spite of those things that scare you to death. FEARLESS is falling madly in love again, even though you’ve been hurt before. FEARLESS is walking into your freshmen year of high school at fifteen. FEARLESS is getting back up and fighting for what you want over and over again… even though every time you’ve tried before, you’ve lost. It’s FEARLESS to have faith that someday things will change. FEARLESS is having the courage to say goodbye to someone who only hurts you, even if you can’t breathe without them. I think it’s FEARLESS to fall for your best friend, even though he’s in love with someone else. And when someone apologizes to you enough times for things they’ll never stop doing, I think it’s FEARLESS to stop believing them. It’s FEARLESS to say “you’re NOT sorry”, and walk away. I think loving someone despite what people think is FEARLESS. I think allowing yourself to cry on the bathroom floor is FEARLESS. Letting go is FEARLESS. Then, moving on and being alright…That’s FEARLESS too. But no matter what love throws at you, you have to believe in it. You have to believe in love stories and prince charmings and happily ever after. That’s why I write these songs. Because I think love is FEARLESS.
Being Fearless is about facing fears, not lack of them. Because we will always have fears in our lives and friendship, but the fact that we overcome them is what makes us Fearless. Thank you Taylor Swift for giving me my best friend in the world and reminding us what is means to be Fearless.
-M.G.
