When I think of Taylor Swift's music, I get filled with nostalgia. This album is no different. 1989 was the very first Taylor Swift album I ever listened to when I was younger, and I was hooked from the very first song. Taylor Swift is such a Fearless Mastermind with her songwriting, and I think even when I was younger, I could feel something enchanting in her and her music. All of the songs on 1989 are masterpieces, so it's incredibly hard to choose just one, but my favorite song on 1989 is I Know Places.   I Know Places is a masterpiece because it is lyric genius. I Know Places is a song about a couple escaping the limelight and paparazzi to hide from the world. Taylor is a lyrical genius in this song. She uses lines like "they are the hunters and we are the foxes" as metaphors for being hunted by the paparazzi. She calls them "circling vultures," which is such a good way to say that the paparazzi are always waiting to strike to get the story. She makes the song relatable by writing, "Let them say what they want, we won't hear it." As someone who has experienced negative rumors about them, this line and the line "they take their shots, but we're bulletproof" are so empowering and really make the song relatable. Because of Taylor's lyricism, I Know Places is lyrically the best song on 1989.   This song is not only the best 1989 song lyrically but also musically. The musical elements in this song are perfect. This song is moody and dark, and the way the lyrical eliments, like the I's at the beginning, enhance the musicality is genius. Another reason this song is the best musically is that it fits Taylor's voice perfectly. It has a moody lower melody that suits her lower register perfectly. It also has higher belt parts that showcase her ability to belt higher notes. All of this musicality that perfectly complements the lyrics is the reason I Know Places is the best 1989 song.   Every song on 1989 is amazing, but only one has amazing musicality and genius lyrics. That song Is I Know Places. I Know Places shows off Taylor's voice and her songwriting abilities. It is moody, dark, and truly the perfect Taylor Swift song—and the best song on 1989. Songs like I Know Places are why Taylor Swift IS the music industry.

Most families talk about politics or the news over christmas dinner, mine talked about math. Math has always had a place in my family. My grandfather was a highschool math teacher, my great uncle wrote math textbooks, and my aunt was a math major. Nevertheless, I hated math when I was younger. I didn't understand how it ment anything in the real world and I was a rebel who wanted to be different from my family. However as I got older I outgrew my stubbornness and I started to really understand math. I can still remember walking into Algebra 2 expecting to be board the whole year. I was begrudgingly good at math and set on not liking it. However, to my surprise, that year everything changed. I had an amazing teacher who helped me begin to realize just how cool math could be. I was drawn into math by the systimatic procedures of solving the problems and the fact that there were clear cut solutions (well, most of the time) to problems. The next year I took Trig/Pre-calc. That year I agian had an amazing teacher who shared her love of the subject. Slowly, throughout that class I became even more drawn to the processe of solving math problems. That year math became my favorite subject (and still is to this day). However how math really shaped my view of the world was through science. The same year I took Algebra 2, I took Chemistry. I have always been a science student and I love learning about how the natural world works. Taking Chemistry showed me how math principles are not only all around us, but can be used in science to learn how the world around us works. That realization of the applications of math principles changed my view of the world. Knowing that everywhere throughout the natural world math principles were silently at play was absolutely fascinating to me and made me view the world in a new, more scientific, light. I started out hating math, half from always being surrounded by it, and half from not truly understanding its purpose and applications. What ended up drawing me to math was all the amazing math teachers I had who helped me understand math and Its applications in science. I am forever grateful to math for the connection it gives me to my family, and I am forever grateful to my family for helping me to view math in a positive light, even if I was reluctant at first. Now as a highschool senior I aspire to become a Doctor. My future is filled with math and math-based science classes. So to end I would like to include my grandfathers favorite math related phrase: "math Is great, math is fun, math is always number one".