I’ve been a fan of yours from the first moment I heard Tim McGraw on country radio in 2006. From that moment, you had quickly become one of my favourites; my favourite to listen to, my favourite to dance to, to sing to, to cry to and even read (your tour blogs were everything). It wasn’t just your music that caught my attention. Taylor, you didn’t make me feel alone when I would come home from school after getting picked on.
You first came to Perth, Australia during your Speak Now tour and although I was dying to go, my obligations were to attend my cousins wedding; I never really got over the fact I missed the concert and it was then i told myself that I would do everything in my power to not miss another concert of yours again. It was the Red tour that my life changed forever. I attended the concert with my sister (who wasn’t a fan but by the end of the concert she was a swiftie) and during All Too Well, my sister turned to me and promised me that going to your shows was going to be our tradition. But it was when I got extremely sick with two rare heart conditions in 2014, your music had become more of a survival mechanism than just a few life-changing albums. Not knowing what was going to happen to my life was pushing me to the point of giving up and breaking apart every single day but it was because of your music and my family, I got through each day.
The people you expect to fix you when you’re sick are doctors, but when they didn’t have answers how to make me better, I turned to music for emotional support. Each morning I would wake up in my hospital bed, I’d choose an album to listen to for the day; if I was having a good day, I chose something along the lines of Taylor Swift or Speak Now, and if I needed something to get me through a hard day, I would choose Fearless or Red. There was something about listening to your songs that touched me to my core, that gave me strength to get through whatever I was feeling that day. It was hard lying in a hospital bed at 24 years old, watching all your friends have the time of their lives through Instagram and Snapchat but it was okay, because I had your songs singing me to sleep through my headphones every night.
Later that year, on October 27th - my 25th birthday, and yes I was born 1989- an album called 1989 was released. To me, this album was a sign that I was meant to keep fighting just when I was about to give up in my darkest days. The release of 1989 was the best birthday gift anyone could have got me because it was a gift of strength. That year and the following three years, were the worst years of my life; I was in and out of hospital constantly (and when I say constantly, I mean every couple of weeks and I would have to stay in for at least two weeks at a time). You weren’t coming to Perth for your 1989 tour and remembering how I felt not going to the Speak Now tour, I knew I had to book a flight out to the closest city that you were going to play. I was discharged from hospital two days before catching my flight to Melbourne with my sister and was back In hospital two days after I came back, but it was worth every moment. When reputation came out, I was slowly getting better. I was in hospital less and less. As You were rebuilding your reputation, I was rebuilding my health. My sister and I attended the Rep tour in Perth and it was the first concert I could dance through from beginning to end without getting tired. Today, I haven’t been in hospital for a year. I am stable but my life is forever changed with the heart conditions. It’s because of your music, Taylor, that I have come out stronger than ever. So thank you because without your songs, or you, I don’t know where I’d be. - Kikki Suleski
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