When Taylor Swift’s album Red (Taylor’s Version) was released in November 2021, I was a first semester freshman at the University of Miami. I can vividly remember attending a “release party” (which was just eight or so girls from my dorm floor packed into one of our rooms). As a casual Swift fan prior to college, I didn’t know it at the time, but throughout every stage of my college experience, I would find comfort through Taylor’s songs and create so many amazing memories associated with her music — and it all started that night.
That night was the first time I heard the song “Nothing New” (featuring Phoebe Bridgers) about the bittersweet feeling of aging, and there was one lyric in particular that a lot of fans instantly clung to, myself included: “How can a person know everything at 18, and nothing at 22?” I remember feeling conflicted about it at the time, because back when I was admitted to UM, I certainly felt like I had it all figured out, but six months later, I was completely lost and feared I made the wrong decision. I couldn’t shake the pit in my stomach that I was 1,500 miles away from home, and completely on my own at just 18 years old. I had committed to UM with such blind confidence that it would be an amazing experience off the bat, and I was frustrated with how much I was struggling with the transition.
Now, as I’m about to turn 22 and graduate college, unsure of where I’ll go next, I relate to that lyric from the other side of the spectrum — knowing that despite how unsure I was in the beginning, that everything worked out, and college was full of highs and lows, great people, and self discovery — and wish I could tell 18-year-old me to slow down and savor it.Â
In the spring of my freshman year, things turned a corner. I joined a sorority, met a slew of new girls, and happened to make friends with some of them who also loved and found comfort in Taylor’s music. I’ve always thought that the critics of Taylor Swift who complain about her music being too focused on men and exes just aren’t listening very closely, because she’s always written about friendships, personal struggles, and inner thoughts. Midnights is an album of introspective songs from throughout her career that dropped in 2022. It was constantly on in my sophomore year apartment that I ended up sharing with one of those sorority friends who I first bonded over Taylor with — still one of my best friends today; the album became the soundtrack to our friendship that year.Â
Throughout college, I found myself going back through Taylor’s old albums a lot, because she truly does have a corresponding song for basically every emotion or situation. When one summer I fell into an accidental fling with a boy from back home and had to go back to school after a three-week whirlwind romance, I dove head first into Taylor’s Folklore album, finding the indie-folk instrumentals and fictional love triangle an apt depiction of what I was going through. As my sophomore year continued and he and I waged an on-again-off-again war of admitting our feelings, I frequently found myself singing along to Taylor’s angsty songs from her teens, like “The Story of Us” and “Forever and Always.” When we finally patched it up and started officially dating the following summer, I played him “Our Song” from her debut album, and now whenever it comes on shuffle, it takes me right back to that moment.
When the Eras Tour (a huge, high grossing, 21-month-long tour that encapsulated music from all of Taylor’s different albums and “eras”) was announced in the fall of my sophomore year, I knew I had to be there. I got to go to the Eras Tour not once but twice during college, in my home state of New Jersey and in Florida while at school — both unforgettable experiences I can’t wait to gloat to my future kids about. No matter if I had obstructed view or floor seats (both of which I actually had), the energy in those stadiums was incredible, and my friends and I got to dress up as different “eras” and trade friendship bracelets (as part of a fan project created in reference to her song “You’re On Your Own, Kid,” which includes the line “So make the friendship bracelets, take the moment and taste it / You’ve got no reason to be afraid.”) I’ve always loved this lyric as it reminds me of those times early in college when I finally found my people. Attending Taylor’s Miami show on the last leg of the tour, during the fall of my senior year (alongside the friends I grew close to in part due to a shared love of her music) felt like a fitting finale to this chapter of my life.
In total, my college experience has seen Taylor release two new albums, three Taylor’s Version albums, music videos, a short film, and a tour movie — quite a lot of content to pack into four years. But when I think back on college, I won’t be remembering exactly which albums came out when, or how many bonus tracks were on each. Instead, I’ll be reminiscing on how her music framed such a poignant, exciting time of growth in my life, and how it was the backdrop to so many important relationships that I plan to keep forever.Â
On the precipice of 22 and leaving college, I’m not sure what’s going to come next for me. So maybe the song was right in that I do know nothing — but something I’m sure of is that wherever I go, Taylor will be coming with me.