Taylor Swift has been my favorite artist for as long as I can remember. Her music has always been special to me because I feel that she speaks to a wide audience, including myself. She has proven her skills through her music time and time again and has become one of my most beloved inspirations. Taylor Swift’s fifth album, "1989," holds a special place in my heart for many reasons. For one, the album came out when I was eight years old, just around the time my parents were getting divorced. While every Taylor Swift album means a lot to me and all of her songs helped me through that process, this one happened in real-time with me and was my true crutch. Secondly, it was the album that made me first realize Taylor’s versatility as an artist, and that aligned more with my general music interest outside of her. Pop music has been my favorite genre of music for most of my life and I loved to see Taylor be able to fit in there as well. And thirdly, I truly loved how Taylor could change her genre of music but still retain her personality and roots through her songwriting. While "1989" definitely showed a different side to her, I never thought that the album was a marketing ploy to get more listeners. The music still felt like Taylor Swift to me, and that was the most important part. More specifically, my favorite song on "1989" is undoubtedly track eleven, titled "This Love." The best way for me to easily describe why this song is my favorite is the songwriting. The song is so beautifully written to describe the passions and pitfalls of love in a way only Taylor could do. She uses the verses to recount the struggles of a relationship through “high tides” and tossing and turning. The chorus tells of her setting the love free, but the love still came back to her. It demonstrates the strength it takes to let someone you love go, and the joy you experience when they come back and choose you. The bridge describes a similar feeling, of the pain of letting someone go. She sings “Your kiss, my cheek, I watched you leave / Your smile, my ghost, I fell to my knees.” This line eloquently narrates the pain of a breakup and not having that person in your life anymore. But the next lines explain that they realize this love is a major part of their lives - a “permanent mark” - and go back. The calming melody and echoes in "This Love" also make it a favorite of mine. The simplicity of the music creates a need for the lyrics and emphasizes the story that Taylor is telling. Her pain bleeds through the music most incomparably, almost equivalent to that of a track five song. And the best thing that I could say about this song being my favorite is my personal stroke of luck with it; It was one of the surprise songs performed on my night of the Eras Tour! I was so glad when I heard this song, and it made the concert and the song that much more meaningful to me. Taylor's creation of "This Love," from the lyrics to the music, is truly what makes it my favorite song on "1989."

I have been involved with extracurriculars for as long as I can remember. The first extracurricular I ever did was performing in a class production of "Suzy Snowflake." I was in the first grade and I played Snowflake #5. I'm not sure if I remember the whole show in detail, but I do know that it brought me joy to interact with my friends outside of the classroom setting. After "Suzy Snowflake," I have been involved in several more extracurricular activities. Throughout elementary and middle school I performed in 5 musical productions, including Annie in "Annie" and Edna Turnblad in "Hairspray." I also became interested in student government in 6th grade and have participated in it ever since. The transition from middle school to high school was hard, having to go to school on the computer. But, I still found ways to get involved by going to virtual student government meetings and searching for other clubs as I entered high school in a very unconventional way. I found a student-run glee club and decided to join, hoping to try and "meet" new people in high school. The glee club was a fun experience - however difficult it was to sing in a Google Meet - and I made a good friend that I could count on through these last few years. When we were finally allowed to come back to school in person, I hit the ground running. I volunteered with every student government activity that I could and was excited to play high school sports. I found myself jumping at the chance to participate in planning school dances and wanting to work school events on the weekends. Sports kept me busy, too, giving me the chance to stay active and learn to work on a team of people I had just met. This past year I was in my first high school musical production, an attendance-record-breaking run of "Mamma Mia!" Our whole community was impressed and excited since it was our school’s first big show since before COVID restrictions. I also find opportunities to volunteer at community-based functions, such as fundraisers or 5K events. It is important to me to find ways to support the community separately from my school. It is great when I can encourage my friends to join me and volunteer as well. When you are younger in elementary and middle school, I feel that extracurriculars are more there for you to find out what you are passionate about, and what interests you the most. They allow you to grow with an activity and learn about it, like volunteering or playing a sport. And once you learn more about and begin to appreciate it for yourself, you become more interested in sharing it with others. It always brings me joy to bring my peers to the gym and pass a volleyball around, because it might mean that I introduce them to something they might not have known before. I also think that being involved with many of the same interests from a young age allows you to branch further or dive into those things when you are older. After volunteering with the student government for school functions, I learned about the National Honor Society and other honor societies that work to better our school and our surrounding community. I also began working as an intern for one of my previous music teachers with her local small business. Just like it did with Suzy Snowflake, it brings me joy to participate in extracurricular activities because they allow me to interact and help the community around me.