Letting Taylor Swift Predict My 2021: Part One

Is anybody else obsessed with TikTok?! I am not going to lie, it took me until this lockdown to finally download the app but now that I have, I cannot get enough! From book recommendations to behind-the-scenes of photoshoots to life hacks, there is always a new video for me to watch. One trend that I was particularly interested in at the end of last year was ‘Letting Taylor Swift Predict My Year’ where the first twelve songs that played when you shuffled Taylor Swift’s discography would determine what your 2021 is going to be like. This sounded like an incredible idea for a blog post and so I decided to try the trend for myself. Keep reading to find out what my 2021 is going to be like.

January – Dancing With Our Hands Tied

‘People started talking, putting us through our paces’

My interpretation of Dancing With Our Hands Tied is that it is about a relationship that started off as a secret but as time passes and the relationship progresses, it becomes public. At first, when the relationship is a secret, everything is going well for the couple, however, once the relationship becomes public, it is subjected to outside pressures which causes the relationship to fall apart.

It is already clear from the previous year that the current circumstances have put a strain on everyone’s relationships, whether they are living together or separated by tiers and I predict that January is going to be another month of this (spoiler: it was!) as a new lockdown is introduced along with new measures that keep everyone separate from those they love. This is the perfect example of how outside pressures (i.e. the pandemic) is putting pressure on relationships, a pressure that would not be there under normal circumstances. This is a reminder to myself to focus on protecting my relationships from outside pressures: making sure that I am still reaching out to friends and family on a regular basis and making sure that I am still taking time to be by myself.

February – Mirrorball

‘Shimmering beautiful and when I break it’s in a million pieces’

My interpretation of Mirrorball is that it is about the downside of being a public figure where every inch of your public and private life is put on display for others to criticise. Especially during this current age of social media, the line between public and private often becomes blurred and this can sometimes lead to sharing what should have been kept personal. This is a reminder to myself to always be aware of the line between public and private and always consider who could have access to my page.

March – Bad Blood

‘Still got scars on my back from your knife’

My interpretation of Bad Blood is that it is about a friendship or relationship where one party betrays the other. This is one prediction that I am hoping will not come true because I am someone who values the quality of my relationships over the quantity and therefore if someone were to betray me, it would be breaking a deep bond.

April – New Romantics

‘We wait for trains that just aren’t coming’

My interpretation of New Romantics is that it is about the Millennial generation, the generation that Taylor Swift falls into. The lyric ‘we wait for trains that just aren’t coming’ talks about how millennials will hope for things that will never happen rather than being proactive and asking for what they want instead. The lyric ‘we show off our different scarlet letters, trust me, mine is better’ talks about how competitive millennials can be about their problems, believing that their story is the worst and that they are alone in their struggle, which is often not the case. This is a reminder to myself to stop expecting certain things to happen and to start asking for and working towards what I want in life. This is also a reminder to myself to be aware of other’s struggles and to use our shared experiences for the greater good rather than comparing our struggles to make each other feel better.

May – Happiness

‘Honey, when I’m above the trees I see this for what it is’

My interpretation of Happiness is that it is about the end of a relationship. It is about the initial pain that one feels when they lose someone they love and how this pain is all-consuming so that one cannot see the future that awaits them, of the person that they are going to become now that the relationship is over. I am a firm believer that everything happens for a reason and this song is the perfect example of that – sometimes a relationship has to end in order for you to become the person you were always meant to be: some relationships only exist to show you the way. This is a reminder to myself to look outside that initial pain to see what I have learnt from the experience and how this will help me to become a better person.

June – Only The Young

‘They aren’t gonna change this, we gotta do it ourselves’

My interpretation of Only The Young is that it is about how the future belongs to the younger generation. Sometimes it can feel impossible to make a change, no matter how passionately you feel about the subject, however, as recent events in America have shown, there is strength in numbers and together we can make a change. One day, the younger generation will be the older generation and will hold positions of power from where we will be able to make the changes the world so desperately needs.

What Taylor Swift song is your favourite?