Taylor Swift and Football Made me a better person

My last few blogs have been rather heavy, so I figured I’d do something a bit lighter. Taylor Swift. I’ve talked a little about Taylor before in other blogs, but wanted to dig a little deeper. I never really got into celebrity culture or worship and would have never thought years ago I’d be so enamored with a celebrity, but here we are.

Growing up in Indiana, I played football in junior high and for part of high school. Sadly I kept blowing my knees out and after the third time my junior year I decided it was enough. I wanted to join the Marines out of school and didn’t want to deal with ongoing knee problems so I called it quits. A lot of people in our small town gave me a lot of hell about it, because I was a big kid, but I just didn’t feel it was what I wanted to do anymore.

I’ve been a football fan ever since. I did join the Marines and spent four years serving. Over the years I had different jobs and mostly listened to things like classic rock and heavy metal. In the early 2000s when my daughter was little, she introduced me to Taylor Swift when we’d hear Love Story on the radio, she’d start singing and I’d sing along with her because the song is a bop no matter how you look at it.

She thought it was funny I wouldn’t change the lyrics when I said “I’ll be the princess.” It has always remained a really good memory. Fast foward to late 2010 and I’m going through my divorce, a lot of things were happening and it was a really hard time. I would listen to Taylor on my own to get me through. Usually Speak Now since that was her current album at the time.

I still listened to other music, but found I really enjoyed her. At that time I had some online businesses and had a lot of followers on social media. It was also right before “Snake Gate” so if I’d ever mention her on my socials or to people at work people would like at me, a middle aged man, like I was out of my mind. If I mentioned Taylor on Facebook people would just froth at the mouth in my comments on all the grocery list of reasons they hate her and find her annoying. So I just kept it to myself.

Around three years ago I shuddered the last of my online businesses that had to do with horror or occult topics. Once that was out of the way, I became more open about my love for Taylor and her music. I deleted anyone on my page who took issue with that which made things a lot more peaceful.

My wife and I also joined some local Swiftie groups and went to Taylor themed dance parties, crafting parties, meetups, and karaoke. Its gotten us out of the house more and helped me be more social, since I work from home and since the pandemic I would rarely get out. My therapist told me to get out more, so this gave us a fun, wholesome outlet.

The Swiftie community has been very accepting of us even though we’re in our 50s. They enjoy seeing people of all ages connecting with Taylor’s music. My opinion, Taylor transcends gender or age. I still catch some crap about her at times, usually from people who know nothing about her who say her music is just teeny bop radio hits because the only song they know is Shake it Off.

I have a theory on why this is, Taylor’s music, when you listen to her albums in their entirety are extremely relatable. Even for men. I haven’t been through breakups and things like a young woman would have experienced, but I’ve been through sadness, depression and heartbreak. I also have made my own share of mistakes and hurt people. Her music makes you take a look at yourself and makes you feel things. Most guys don’t want to feel. The mere idea of feeling things seems foreign or weak. I know, because I was like that for a long time.

Taylor’s music not just makes me feel, but it makes me want to be a better man. I think of the hurt and sadness in some of her songs and realize I never want to put my wife through that. I remember when someone was talking about her song Betty and said how terrible James is (If you haven’t heard this song go listen to it immediately). I said I felt for James because 17 year old boys are terminally dumb and sadly some of that sticks with us in adulthood.

So, football conditioned me to work as a team and prepare for the Marine Corps, and being a fan of football has brought me a lot of friends and connections I never thought I’d have. But Taylor has not only changed my life but likely saved my life. I currently sleep with headphones on to drown out background noise and usually fall asleep with my Taylor Swift playlist going. It’s helped me in ways I probably can’t even measure.

Looking back, I feel listening to Taylor has made me a happier person, she’s helped my mental health and I’m more empathetic. I’m sure my medication and therapy help, but this all goes back to me deciding to stop caring what everyone else thought of me and my musical tastes. Oddly when I “Came out” as full Swiftie, some people got aggressively irate about it. Which was odd, but that’s on them. Not my problem. We’ll continue going to dance parties and singing along to Taylor’s songs with our friends and enjoying life as we get older. Life’s already short enough and hard enough to deny yourself things that make you happy.

So, that’s my story on how I became a Swiftie. I’ve posted about this on social media before, but wanted to permanently document it somewhere I can reference it. Whatever it is you love that makes you happy, do that thing. Whatever music, art, movies, you name it. No matter how weird and quirky it may seem and no matter your age or gender, just do that thing that makes you happy. We look at the world right now and things are really rough and bleak. Find whatever spark of joy you can find out there, and grab onto it and cling to it as much as you can. We all need every bit of happiness we can get.