My favorite song on Taylor Swift's fifth studio album, 1989, is "You Are In Love". The track is not included on the standard version of the album but appears on the deluxe edition, where it makes its mark as one of three bonus songs. The song was my most streamed of this past year and holds a special place in my heart. In summary, the track follows the inner workings of a relationship from its uncertain beginning to its picture perfect present form, encompassing how love forms, grows, and fuels our passions as human beings. The intro of "You Are In Love" is over 20 seconds long and eases listeners into a calming sonic landscape that differs in comparison to the rest of 1989, where many tracks begin quickly to attract attention and jump into the lyrics. Sonically, to me, the first verse exerts the vibe of riding down the highway as the sun is nearly set with the windows down and a cool breeze tossing your hair around freely. Lyrically speaking, Swift provides a glance back in time at the start of a relationship and the escalation of its importance in her life. In the chorus, Swift echoes many of the lines she sings to herself: "You can hear it in the silence (Silence), silence (Silence), you You can feel it on the way home (Way home), way home (Way home), you You can see it with the lights out (Lights out), lights out (Lights out), You are in love, true love," potentially mimicking the fact that many of us have to convince ourselves we are worthy of love, including an inspiration as influential as Taylor herself. The second verse shows the gleefulness Swift exerts; it gives the butterflies of budding new love. While the bridge shows the expansion of love, a full circle moment for Swift as an artist and lyricist reveals her as a romantic at her core. Taylor Swift's song "You Are In Love" provides hope for listeners like myself in the possibility of finding a love that feels right and real, sparking up a flame of inspiration and an aspiration for a love that creates a better version of ourselves even through times where we don’t feel we deserve it. My favorite line encompasses it all “you understand now why they lost their minds and fought the wars, and why I’ve spent my whole life trying to put it into words”. Love is passionate, it’s beautiful, it’s something to work hard and strive for. A way to discover who we are.

GALAXY UNITED Looking at the stars, My beating heart tenses in my chest as A frenzy of thoughts engulf my mind Thinking of what there is to find beyond What we know Is it ungrateful to look at dessert before Even ordering a glass of wine? Time walks, but I run with the past in the Past and our futures behind a mountain Too heavy to move alone As stars tucked away in a complex Galaxy, each of us wishes to be the one Who sees what those before us were blind to Infinite possibilities blow up like fireworks But we venture into the unknown. Together.