Saturday, August 6, 2011

"and I'm only me when I'm with you"

Taylor Swift inspires the most thought provoking Saturday afternoon dish washing moments of all other songwriters. Honestly.

So I'm standing there scrubbing away at a cup measure this afternoon and reevaluating my distaste of the song "I'm Only Me When I'm With You." See My Relationship Progression With This Song:

  1. Bobbing along. Oooh, this is kind of catchy.
  2. Furrowed brow. Wait a second, this is a dependency song.
  3. Slow nodding. Okay, she's talking about her best friend. That's cool, right?
  4. Head scratching. Hold on, why is it okay to only be yourself around your best friend but not around a guy? 
  5. Quizzical expression. Shame! I know EXACTLY what she's talking about. I'm dependent!
  6. Squinty look. But then it is about a guy?
  7. Head-desk. I'm so confused. What is my stance?
It recently occurred to me that I don't have to have a ideological "stance" to every song on my iPod but still, I think about these things. And I've made it clear in the past that I don't support the intricacies of Taylor Swift's tendency towards passivity and pining. But this song has shaken it all up by the mere fact that I associate with it so closely.

I know what it's like to feel so close to a person that your empathy transcends almost everything. I've felt like I couldn't be myself when I wasn't around this person/people. I've been a part of something that feels greater than myself, been half of a whole.

What does that say about me and does it even matter? And when you start to realize that a lot of what you thought was silly or wrong or cynical or close-minded, is that called maturity or just life? Seriously, what are the chances I'll look back on this point in time, everything I stand for and believe in, and think, "Wow, I can't believe I thought that. I was so... *insert adjective here*"

*gasp* Am I actually growing as a person?

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