The Taylor Swift Girl

 "And we're dancin' all night 

And you can try to change my mind 

But you might have to wait in line 

What's a girl gonna do? A diamond's gotta shine" 

Bejeweled-TS

Everyone who knows me knows that I’m obsessed with Taylor Swift. I’m a proud Swiftie. It feels so good to be known as the “Taylor Swift Girl”. 

I still remember those days in high school jamming to Love Story, finding the lyric, and memorizing it. And then she released You Belong With Me and Today Was A Fairytale. Both quickly became my favorites as well. 

But then I got introduced to so many new artists, with different genres. I didn’t listen to Taylor Swift that much. In fact, when listening to Blank Space with a friend, I said, “I really miss her old songs,” not knowing 1989 would be my favorite album of hers. It’s the only Taylor Swift’s album without a skip! 

One day, a few days before I moved to Jakarta, I found a memory card in front of my house. I put it on my phone, trying to know whose memory card it was so I could return it. I didn’t find any clue about the owner. But guess what I found! Tons of Taylor Swift songs! Speak Now, Our Song, etc. Since I didn’t know to whom I should return that memory card, I decided to bring it with me to Jakarta. I listened to the songs over and over again (note that this was before I knew Spotify, yeah, I didn’t keep up with apps or stuff like that). 

During this time, Taylor deleted all of her social media posts! It intrigued me and I started digging deep into the KimKanye-Taylor drama. I learned all I needed to know that she was in the right. And then, she posted three short clips of snakes on her IG account and changed her bio to, “There will be no further explanation. There will just be reputation”. Everyone went into a frenzy! She’s releasing her newest album, 3 years after her latest. She usually had 2-year intervals between two albums. Reputation came out, but I realized it wasn’t for me. It was too dark. I later decided it would be on the bottom of my favorite Taylor Swift’s album (sorry not sorry to those reputation stans out there, we’re entitled to our own opinion, okay!) 

Less than two years later, she posted cryptic posts on her social media accounts, pointing to April 26, 2019. On that day, she released Me! music video and told us the name of the album as well as the second single could be found in the video. I watched many YouTube videos talking about the theories and the Easter eggs. One of my favorite YouTubers at that time was Lauren Lipman. 

That was the beginning of Lover, another album that I think isn’t made for me. Fortunately, it has “Death by A Thousand Cuts”, one of my favorite songs ever! “I get drunk but it’s not enough, ‘cause the morning comes and you’re not my baby!” Yup, I was going through a heartbreak when that song was released :( If you read this, you know it’s you! 

The next album came by surprise during the pandemic. A friend DMed me her post and I freaked out! Midnight in her place is exactly midday in Bali. When she released the whole album at once, no lead single, I was in a meeting. Gosh, was it hard to concentrate! When it was finally over, I took my headset and started listening. I cried the first three times listening to “exile”. I was like, “I wish I could marry thing song!” But now “august” is my favorite from the album. (Anyway, I wrote a short story based on exile!) 

A few months later, she decided to surprise us again. This time, I was on a trip in Bukittinggi, West Sumatra. I was hiking with a group of friends, bad network. I tried to refresh the YouTube page over and over again to no avail. I could finally listen to the songs when I got back to the city. “champagne problems” quickly became my favorite. It has never left its throne. 

And then we entered the rerecording era. Denied ownership of her own six first albums, Taylor fixed on rerecording them. Not only that, she decided to add more songs, which originally didn’t make the cut, called “From The Vault”. My favorite from Fearless (Taylor’s Version) is We Were and from Red (Taylor’s Version) is OBVIOUSLY All Too Well (Ten Minutes Version) (Taylor’s Version) (From The Vault). I was at a restaurant with office friends the first time I listened to that masterpiece (before you tore it all up!) and shamelessly wept. It was sad! It was beautiful! It was tragic! (Sad, Beautiful, Tragic is my second favorite from the album, anyway). 

Before moving on to her next rerecording, Taylor decided to bless us with a brand new album, Midnights! It contains 13 songs in the standard edition and an additional 7 in the 3 a.m. edition. My favorite is Would’ve Could’ve Should’ve. Fun fact: on the release day, I forced my office friends to listen to it on their Spotify or Apple Music accounts, and some of them are addicted to Anti Hero! Mission accomplished!

To celebrate Midnights, Taylor Swift Indonesia Official Fanbase held a Taylor Swift karaoke party called, “Midnights Memories” one day after the release. Obviously, I joined the event. It was a bit awkward because it was my first Taylor Swift-themed event. I didn’t know anyone there. Besides, I wasn’t familiar with Midnights’ songs yet, so I had to read the lyrics while trying to sing haha.

But the second a familiar song was played, I sang my heart out. It was soooo fun! The next event was held in Yogyakarta. I had to miss it since it was quite far. The next was in a neighboring city, Bogor, around one hour by train. I went there right after office and for the first time in my life experienced the train ride from Jakarta to Bogor during rush hour! 

The next event, Midnights Symphony, was a bit different. Instead of doing karaoke, we watched some talented Swifties singing Taylor’s songs on the stage. We had to sit and keep our masks on at all times, so it wasn’t as fun as the previous events. 

 

The latest event I attended was Midnights Mayhem, held at LBRTY. I went all out for this one. I bought a dress a little bit similar to what Taylor was wearing when she attended Toronto International Film Festival and bought some chains to make it even more look-alike. I hand-sewed the chains myself (Thanks Dad for teaching me how to sew!)

WKWKWKKWWKWK

Since I was so excited, I reached the venue so early, “Hey,” someone greeted me. I turned to her, she was wearing a customized top similar to what Taylor wore in Bejeweled music video, “Hi.” Thus, a new friendship began. My first Swiftie friend in real life! We met some other people before the event started. We screamed (yes, screamed, not sang) every single song, including the sad ones. It was a lot merrier than the previous parties. We took photos and videos, tried the Bejeweled challenge, and added each other on Instagram.

Then, the committee announced the best costume winners. Guess what! I won haha Along with that friend wearing Bejeweled top and another woman wearing the same top. They were chosen by the event venue and got one bottle of liquor each. Me? I think I was a lot luckier, I got a 1989 World Tour Book and a T-shirt from Dust, a sponsor of the event. Coincidentally (or maybe not), the T-shirt was an oversized gray Tee, similar to what Taylor wears in her (presumably) Lavender Haze music video.

That night was indeed flawless, and sparkling, and a fairytale! I can’t wait for more events to come!