Sophie (Chanko) Dare

I grew up with Taylor Swift like an old friend, almost family, someone whose words and songs have always, always been there for me.

I was nine, sitting on the trampoline with my cousin, singing Love Story over and over again.

I was ten, at Guitar Center and convincing my dad to buy me the book of sheet music for the album Fearless; I picked up my guitar to learn how to play because of her.

I was eleven, asking for Speak Now for Christmas, the first ever album on CD I owned, and playing it in my pink CD player until I knew every word.

I was twelve, my very first year at summer camp, when I got up and played guitar and sang in front of people for the first time ever at the talent show; it was Enchanted.

I was fourteen, wading through the mire of loneliness, losing friends, and rejections from cute boys in middle & high school, and I would put on Dear John, All Too Well, Sad Beautiful Tragic, or Come Back...Be Here, and cry.

I was fifteen, living at my grandma's house with my family to get away from my dad, when 1989 was released, and I walked to Target after school to buy the best deluxe version of the CD with all the bonus tracks – it was worth every penny.

I was sixteen, looking back on the awful period of depression I got through the past few years, and put on Clean in headphones and let the healing, beautiful, calming tune wash over me.

I was nineteen, on a casual date with a boy I actually liked for the first time in a long time, sitting in the McDonald's parking lot eating fries, while my heart pounded as he put his arm around me, and Delicate was playing on the car radio.

I was twenty, finally in a relationship with the kid I'd loved since sixteen, and I choked up as I sang along to Lover, knowing that we could slow dance to it at our wedding one day.

And here I am at twenty one, on the verge of moving out, getting engaged, and beginning an entirely new life... and she surprised all of us with a new album of songs and stories, to define this summer and the months after.

She's gone through so many different phases of life, many different musical styles, and many different attitudes towards life and love. But no matter what, throughout the years of my life, she is always relatable to me, and familiar, like an old friend. I'll always be excited for a new album, no matter how much she changes her style or how much my life changes. Her music will always be special to me.

She has gone through so much, and it shows through in her ever-honest lyrics. It's an emotional experience going back through her songs of the past fifteen years, as she grew from an innocent, teenaged country singer, to a young woman navigating relationships, being shamed by the media, recovering from heartbreak and ridicule, and discovering herself.

Now, from the past two albums, Lover and folklore, it's so easy to see *how much she has grown* to love herself, be confident in making her own way, and entered into a healthy, long-lasting relationship after so much heartbreak.

Taylor Swift has always been there for me, and I'm proud and happy to still be there to listen to her tell her stories.

Thanks for reading!