First and foremost, I want to say thank you. You may think you realize the impact you make on your fans, but you don’t. You don’t see me in the car jamming out to “Our Song” with my friends. You don’t see the nights I spend crying with “All Too Well” on repeat just so I can feel all the emotions again. “I’d like to be my old self again, but I’m still trying to find it.” You didn’t see the reaction from my mom when she played video I made for her on Mother’s Day with “The Best Day” playing in the background. You don’t hear my four-year-old cousin singing to “Blank Space” on repeat for three hours straight.

I am so thankful for each and every of these moments. You not only created memories, but you became my friend. When I’m having a bad day – there’s a Taylor Swift song for that. When I want to have a dance party of one – there’s a Taylor Swift song for that. When I can’t rap, I bake cookies at night (p.s. there’s a Taylor Swift song for that too).

Taylor, you write about things, personal things, that you are ridiculed by the world for sometimes. And I admire you for that. You have taught me to not fear my writing. I shouldn’t fear my thoughts and what other people think of them, because I never know who is going to need it.

Thank you for the music. Thank you for the lyrics. But most importantly, thank you for being a role model that I (and my four-year-old cousin) can look up to.