Happy Birthday Taylor!

Today is a special day! 13 is my lucky number :) It also means 2 more months until my half-birthday! Hehehe, but it's also Taylor Swift's birthday!! :) I think it's pretty cool we were both born on the 13th, our lucky/favorite numbers are 13 and we both turned 13 on Friday the 13th! :) She is such an amazing person! She has changed so many lives and has helped so many people through so many different things.

"Real life is a funny thing, you know, in real life saying the right thing at the right moment is beyond crucial so crucial in fact that most of us start to hesitate for fear of saying the wrong thing at the wrong time but lately what I've begun to fear more than that is letting the moment pass without saying anything. I think you deserve to look back on your life without this chorus of resounding voices saying I could've but its too late now. So there's a time for silence and there's a time for waiting your turn but if you know how you feel and you so clearly know what you need to say you'll know it and I don't think you should wait, I think you should speak now."

She has helped me through so much. I truly fell in love with her work around my Junior year of high school. I had gone through a breakup with a boy, and her song Tell Me Why got me through the most. The next boy brought upon White Horse to help me. After that it was just jamming out to Taylor hoping my own Love Story would come along. That Fearless album got me through so many things my junior year of high school. I can't even begin to explain. All the love stories I wanted, all the boys I wish I could have said how I truly felt, to their face. How I wanted them to feel when they broke my heart. And then just plain jamming out with my girlies because Taylor Swift rocks!!

My senior year came along and this had to have been the toughest yet. She didn't come out with a CD this year, but I almost wish she would have. It wasn't until my first semester of college that her Speak Now album came out. When I lost my sweet, sweet Andy, the song Back to December fit perfectly and I haven't been able to get it out of my head. His birthday is in December so I just knew that it fit perfectly. Our situation was basically the same, and I love this song to death. I had been dating Brady about 4 months when her cd came out, and a few songs on there related to Brady and I. Like Mine and Sparks Fly! Sometimes I related to really mean people, or old high school friends who didn't care to be my friends anymore.. nothing like her song Mean, but close enough. My roommate went through a hard breakup with a boy she dated for a while down at college. It was very hard for her, and we were always telling her he was bad news. The perfect song for that situation then became, Dear John. Perfectly. It's amazing how much you can relate to songs, which is why I appreciate Taylor and all her work.

Now that I've gone through my own heartbreaks, and trials and love stories and memories both good and bad, this CD has helped me through so much. Lately it's been the song Last Kiss and Enchanted. I love that each of these songs tell stories. Her concert, Speak Now Tour 2011 was AMAZING. I seriously loved the entire night. It was then that I found out the true meaning of Long Live. It was written to us; her fans. A song that had meaning of defeating the enemy. That it was with Taylor that we stood. It was with her that we conquered all, and moved mountains. It is her, that I'll tell me children, helped me the most growing up. She is one inspiring girl, and is only 2 years older than me!! I'm extremely grateful for all that she has done :) She is growing tremendously strong and continues to do greater for this world.

So happy birthday Taylor :) I hope you have a fabulous day! You deserve it!

"Speak now or forever hold your peace,' the words said by preachers at the end of wedding ceremonies all over the world, right before the vows. It's a last chance for protest, a moment that makes everyone's heart race, and a moment I've always been strangely fascinated by. So many fantasize about bursting into a church, saying what they'd kept inside for years like in the movies. In real life, it rarely happens.

Real life is a funny thing, you know. In real life, saying the right thing at the right moment is beyond crucial. So crucial, in fact, that most of us start to hesitate, for fear of saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. But lately what I've begun to fear more than that is letting the moment pass without saying anything.

I think most of us fear reaching the end of our life, and looking back regretting the moments we didn't speak up. When we didn't say 'I love you.' When we should've said 'I'm sorry.' when we didn't stand up for ourselves  or someone who needed help.

These songs are made up of words I didn't say when the moment was right in front of me. These songs are open letters. Each is written with a specific person in mind, telling them what I meant to tell them in person. to the beautiful boy whose heart I broke in December. To my first love who I never thought would be my first heartbreak. To my band. To a mean man I used to be afraid of. To someone who made my world very dark for a while. To a girl who stole something of mine. To someone I forgive for what he said in front of the whole world.

Words can break someone into a million pieces, but they can also put them back together. I hope you use yours for good, because the only words you'll regret more than the ones left unsaid are the ones you use to intentionally hurt someone.

What you say might be too much for some people. Maybe it will come out all wrong and you'll stutter and you'll walk away embarrassed, wincing as you play it all back in your head. But I think the words you stop yourself from saying are the ones that will haunt you the longest.

So say it to them. Or say it to yourself in the mirror. Say it in a letter you'll never send or in a book millions might read someday. I think you deserve to look back on your life without a chorus of resounding voices saying 'I could've, but it's too late now.'

There is a time for silence. There is a time waiting your turn. But if you know how you feel, and you so clearly know what you need to say, you'll know it.

I don't think you should wait. I think you should speak now.

Love,

Taylor

PS: To all the boys who inspiried this album,

you should've known ; )