Life, as released by Taylor Swift

Disclaimer: The writer believes only women listen to Taylor Swift.

DEBUT

This was you at your purest of heart and soul. You just came to know what difficult feelings like having a crush or love means, even though it was a bit difficult for you to understand the difference. You shed your first tears for someone who didn't love you back; you had so many visions, even your own song about them. You also wanted to be very popular among your peers. You wanted everyone to move aside as you walked, and you told yourself every single day that even though you started out with Tim McGraw, you felt like you "should have said no" to the person who would eventually break your heart because all this is new territory to you.

FEARLESS

You had become knowledgeable about life and love or you felt that you knew what love stories look like. You thought you had seen enough, heard enough to become a strong fearless woman. Your love story was about to bloom because you know hearing and seeing are not the same as experiencing. You wanted to feel angry, loved, jealous, greedy and adored all at the same time. You had big dreams but everything seemed very far-fetched at the time because you are still only fifteen.

SPEAK NOW

By this time, you have had plenty of experience. Someone broke your heart, you fell in love, your friend left you for another person, your parents separated, your favourite grandparent passed away. This was the point where you felt like your entire world was upside down and there was nothing more you wanted but go back to simpler times. You wanted to go back to the happy and cheerful Decembers, when you did not have to be growing up so fast. But at the same time you felt the need to move on and seek closure so you decided to speak now and pour your heart out. You finally knew what you would say to the John in your life so you wrote your version of Dear John and decided to move on.

RED

You had a tough time, but now it was time for you to move on from the past and swim into the future. The realities of adulthood was not enough to deter you from pursuing your goals. You have had enough of the previous problems and you promised yourself you are never going to get back together, that everything had changed and the only way you would advance from now on would be to move upwards. You were turning into an adult and accepting the fact you were soon going to have certain responsibilities and you cannot tolerate external factors affecting your choice and agency. Now you are 22 and you understand the world all too well.

1989 & REPUTATION

You had done all the wildest things that you possibly could. You fell in love, again, even though you thought you never could. You blamed your actions on others because you felt exploited. You tried to find a stable job but failed, and you hated the job you had. But you decided to shake it off and run after what you really want. You weren't afraid to call out the ones who did you wrong because having bad blood was too immature for you now. You had finally come out of the woods and decided to live life to the fullest, dream to the fullest and chase that dream to the fullest. So you went crazy with your passion, your ideas. You did not know how it turned out to be at the end, but the journey to finding yourself was one worth travelling.

LOVER

It is finally time for you to stop running and sit back to marvel at what you have created, what you have achieved. From being naïve to being fearless to now being an elegant archer who knows how to run after their target. Being an adult is difficult, but you are much more understanding, much more mature now. You know you need to cater to yourself, calm down at times and search for the one true love to spend an eternity with. You are so good at being an adult that you complain about the weather now, you understand the significance of a friend and you somehow end up meeting people who were your archenemies in the past, and you laugh it all off once you meet. You talk about deep topics like death, religion, eternal love etc. You indulge yourself in the thought of finally coming around to the idea of a ring even if it's made of paper. You finally have the time and headspace to enjoy the daylight.

Megha has been listening to a lot of Taylor Swift songs lately. Tell her about your favorite Taylor Swift song at megharahman26@gmail.com