That all changed when I heard Love Story in 2008. I was 15 years old and I just remember being absolutely obsessed. I went and bought Taylor’s debut album and Fearless as soon as I could and began pouring over her lyrics in the little CD booklets, listening to the songs over and over in the car on the way to and from school, in the shower, in my room, everywhere I possibly could. I fell in love with the authenticity and honesty in her lyrics, how her songs were stories and how this girl from Nashville, very close to my age, who also wasn’t very popular at school was becoming this huge star. From then on I started to write more profusely and started to believe that becoming an artist in my own right was possible.
In 2013, five years later, Taylor brought her Speak Now world tour to Perth, Western Australia (my home town) and I was so excited. This would be my first time seeing her live. My cousin and I bought tickets as soon as we could. About a month before the show, I saw a competition online ‘Win A Meet & Greet with Taylor Swift’. In the past I had been pretty lucky with competitions so I guess a part of me didn’t even question whether I could win it or not. It was a 25 words or less competition so I wrote a little poem. One week before the concert I had a voicemail on my phone from the radio station that had been running the competition. I started to get really excited because I knew what that meant. I called the station back and they confirmed that I had won a meet and greet with Taylor and that my cousin and I could meet her backstage before the show – and so we did! It’s one thing to have an artist inspire you, but to get to meet them and tell them yourself is a whole other story and I’m so glad I got to do that.
Taylor has come so far since Speak Now and continues to inspire me still, which I’m sure won’t change in the future. I just hope that maybe one day, I don’t just get to meet her but get to write with her too!
/ Kiara Eve
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