I am in love with how wordy this album is. I've always loved Taylor's songwriting and her ability to tell stories and I think people often over look how talented she is. A lot of her pop songs are fun to listen to and have different plays on words but this record really shows her raw talent for writing that her fans have loved in Red  and what we saw in her way back when she wrote her debut album. Lyrics are the main reason I listen to music and folklore gave me all those words I cherish so much. As a writer/ poet/ artist, I'm so excited to have 16 more songs to pour over and find something new inside each time. 

I talk about these issues in my personal life and just wanted to say that I'm choosing not to go into depth on it because this is not the place for that. This is a space to talk about feelings and art and heartbreak and growth and advice and random thoughts that pop up around midnight. This is an outlet so I don't really think it benefits the world for me to talk to my small audience (that I'm very grateful for) about the worst parts of humanity. I didn't want to write something about these issues out of guilt or something half-hearted to fit in with the other things I read online because it deserves more. I wanted to add a small list of things that I think have helped me become more educated on these issues and some resources that I think have really changed my perspective on things that are bigger than myself. 

I wrote a few weeks ago (in this post) about how I'm desperately trying to be present and in a state of self awareness. I've felt stuck and like I can't really move forward through the haze and in a sense I'm trying to take a little step towards being more of my best self. Someday when I am that person I think I'll be in a better place mentally, physically, socially, psychologically, all of it.

This idea of my best self is really what drives me as a person and I'm still figuring out which pieces of my life right now, the things that I like and do, are going to stick around and prove to be core aspects of myself as a person. I think I have a hard time really accepting and giving my all to things like art, writing, music, etc., because I'm afraid they won't be in my life forever and therefore I shouldn't commit to them. I know I've been writing songs since I was a child but what if it is still just a phase? What if I'm distancing myself from things now so I have nothing to let go of later? Maybe I'm being a little too self aware. What I do know  is that I spend a lot of time consuming those same hobbies (art, music, film, books, etc.) and that inspires a large part of who I think I want to be in 10, 20, or 30 years, so maybe my whole idea of self is skewed. Maybe people are different than what I think they are.