My Champagne Problems

“long story short, I survived” (long story story, evermore, Taylor Swift 2020)

So to conclude these posts that I have been making, I want everyone to know that no matter how hard life gets you can survive it. You will become a stronger person. A person who will want to be the best version of themselves. 

By no means am I anywhere close to the end of my life, but so far I’ve survived. 

I mean we’ve all survived a global pandemic, which is a BIG DEAL. 

No matter what you’ve gone through know that you’ve survived it and that is so important. You should be so proud of yourself. 

Listen to yourself and grow.

xoxo, 

“We’re happy, free, confused and lonely at the same time.” (22, Red, Taylor Swift 2012)

So I was born in 1999, which means this year I’ll be turning 22. We like to joke around and call it my “Taylor swift” year because let’s face it this year would be nothing if she didn't write a song on it. 

So I decided for this post I would give you some insight on 22 things I learned over these happy, free, confusing and lonely times. 

1. Develop a skincare routine. Good skin is the key to conquering life. When your skin is nice it feels like you can conquer the world.

2. Drink enough water. If you don’t drink enough water, you won’t get enough sleep and your brain won’t function fully. Also water stops bloating so that’s a plus.

3. Move out of your home town. I promise you nothing is holding you there! Go and discover the world. Live in the city. Move away for school. Travel. Anything, but GET OUT OF YOUR HOME TOWN. 

4. Use your voice. Stand up for yourself. Stand up for what you believe in. Stand up for the little man. Use your voice for good.

5. Enjoy food. Don’t worry about counting your calories. Food is amazing. There’s so many unique flavours and recipes for you to discover and enjoy. 

7. Go to Disney. I promise you that you will not regret this. Everyone needs to experience Disney once in their life. SO go...enjoy the churros, walk down Main Street, meet Mickey Mouse, Enjoy the magic.

8. Save your money. I promise you having even the smallest amount of money with save you in times of crisis. Life is unpredictable and you never know what is going to happen. It’s alway good to have an emergency fund ready. 

9. MANIFEST. MANIFEST. MANIFEST. Manifest that dream life girl! Write down all your goals and dreams so you can manifest them! (I know it’s been working for me)

10. Don’t listen to the opinions of others. Stop letting others tell you what you are and what you are not. You are not the opinion of those who don’t know you or even the people who do know you.

11. Watch all the marvel movies in chronological order. I promise you this movie franchise needs to be watched by everyone. Make a day out of it, get snacks, a projector, build a fort and watch them I PROMISE IT’S WORTH IT!

12. Dance often, Sing Loud. There is nothing that puts me in a better mood than singing and dancing as much as possibly. It instantly gives you serotonin, and will set the mood for the rest of the day

13. Don’t make time for people who don’t make time for you. You are important. You are valued so don’t let people make you feel as if you are not. If they won’t make time for you then you don’t need to make time for them. 

14. Take all the selfies. Love yourself. Love your friends. Take pictures to make the memories last forever. Frame those pictures. Post those pictures. Also get a film camera, it’s so much fun!

15. Don’t take things too seriously. Life should be fun, as serious as somethings need to be, not everything needs to be that serious. Enjoy life like I said. Even if you can’t sing, but it makes you happy DO IT. Aren’t a good dancer, but want to dance DO IT!  

16. Dye your hair that colour you’ve been scared of. I was blonde my whole life and brunette scared me so much. One day I decided to do it and I absolutely adore it. Also even if you don’t it’s just hair you can CHANGE it!

17. Hug your family members tightly. You never know when the last time you’ll see someone is. Although I haven’t lost my grandparents, I haven’t seen them in almost a year, which is an awful feeling. 

18. Make friends everywhere you go. This is one of the things I love most. I love going up to people or messaging people online to ask them about themselves. I have made so many great friends all over the world because of this.

19. Know you are stronger because what you’ve gone through. Don’t let things in your past make you feel like lesser of a person. You are stronger because of what you’ve gone through. You are not damaged goods. You are strong.

20. Night drives are therapeutic. If you’re feeling down, just go for a drive. I promise you it will help. 

21. STOP APOLOGIZING. Don’t apologize for mistakes you make. Life is all about making mistakes and growing from those. Yes, apologize if you hurt someone, but don’t apologize for small mistakes you make in life. 

22. Don’t be afraid to be you. End of sentence.

I hope that was some good insights for everyone, and maybe they aren’t good rules for you, but they are definitely good rules for me to follow.

xoxo,

“I swear I don’t love the drama. It loves me” (End game, reputation, Taylor Swift 2017)

Honestly my whole life is a Taylor Swift album. If I’m being honest it seems like I’ve gone through a lot of shitty stuff, but I mean it definitely could be worse. I’m just glad I had someone that felt like was going through the same thing. 

This quote instantly struck for me when I heard it when the BEST ALBUM OF ALL TIME CAME OUT (can you see my bias here). It seems like no matter what I do someone has a problem with it. Like what?

This is honestly one of the biggest struggles of my life because I HATE DRAMA. I'd much rather just hangout with my cats and like watch crime documentaries. I don’t want any drama, but everyone wants drama with me. It’s like it follows me around wherever I go. 

When I got out of high school, I for sure was like this will be awesome, no more pointless drama. God was I WRONG!!! 

Literally me getting mad at someone for being racist makes me too stuck up and people would just say how annoying I am. Or when I stick up for myself I’m selfish. Or I shop too much which is a red flag (cause you know I don’t work super hard for my money). I honestly could breath and people would find a problem with it. Like aren’t we all in our 20s and you are still doing this nonsense. 

I will say I’ve noticed it’s mainly men (or should I say boys) who do this. Like why does life need to filled with drama. I don’t want to keep living my reputation era, I want my lover era then maybe I can move onto my folklore era.

I would rather just hangout with the cats, eat chocolate and watch the Ted Bundy documentary. I swear I don’t love the drama it definitely loves me. 

Xoxo,

“Someday I’ll be living in a big old city and all you’re ever gonna be is mean” (Mean, Speak Now, Taylor Swift 2010)

Throwing it back to a classic. Even from the age of 11 I felt this song deep within my bones. I still do if we’re being honest. 

When you grow up in a small town you have people who doubt you ALL THE TIME. It actually gets very exhausting because you feel you have to prove yourself to everyone, but who cares. All those people are is mean. 

I know for a fact, I’m doing well and am going to do well. I’m going to accomplish my dreams. I will be the girl who everyone knows about in the industry because I’m setting myself up for that. JUST LIKE TAYLOR DID. 

I swear everyone in the world knows who Taylor Swift is. Hey maybe one day I could work for her...wouldn’t that be the dream. 

Anyways back to what I was saying. Don’t let anyone stop your from living your life and accomplishing everything you want. 

I have really noticed this with growing my instagram and becoming an influencer. So many people from my home town have so many bad things to say, but why? Because they have nothing better to do? Probably. 

On the opposite end of that, I’ve made so many great connections with girls just like me all over the globe and it’s the best feeling in the entire world. So don’t let the mean people bring you down. I know I certainly won’t anymore because some day I’ll be living in a big old city!

Xoxo, 

“I screamed so loud but no one heard a thing” (Clean, 1989, Taylor Swift 2014)

I know it seems like I talk a lot of eating disorders, but it’s something that NEEDS to be talked about because it’s not. 

Most people understand depression and anxiety, but the same type of attention doesn’t get paid to eating disorders. When people find out they will say “well why don’t you just eat.” Which is NOT helpful advice. 

It’s like screaming for help, but no one is listening. People tell you that you look so good when you start to lose the weight. That you look like a model. They don’t realize how awful it actually is. 

I am a 5′7 female and at my lowest weight I was 80 pounds, which is feather light, but everyone just said how great I looked. No one realize what was actually going on. It looked like you could have snapped my wrist in half. To this day it is still hard to not look back at those pictures and wish I was still that skinny. 

The thing with eating disorders is that they never go away, they will always be there in the back of your mind. I would consider myself almost recovered now, but still some days I have mentally breakdowns in the mirror because I feel I’m fat. I’m not fat. I weigh 120 pounds. I look healthy, but sometimes that doesn't matter. 

To this day it feels like I’m screaming, but no one can hear because they don’t understand. 

I guess what I want people to take away from this post is that you’re not alone in your feelings. Go ahead and eat, you don’t need to starve yourself. Also please be kind to others because you never know how it will affect them later on in life. I have been struggling with this for almost 10 years now all because someone told me I looked like a boy because of my nose in grade 7. 

Please be kind and take care of yourself and others. 

Xoxo, 

“They aren’t gonna help us, too busy helping themselves” (Only The Young, Taylor Swift 2020)

I believe everyone has a voice to use for good. We need to fight for our future. It’s a battle that has just begun. 

I think about this a lot. About how older generations don’t quite understand what we are going through. Look at last year alone. How many things we were fighting for that should not even be a thing. 

We as young people need to fight to change that. Why shouldn’t we want to? I want to see a future where we don’t have to fight for basic human rights anymore. 

Stop the hate when you hear it. Don’t let the darkness snuff out the light. We are the generations that are going to make this world a better place. We need to continue to fight for equality and equity. I don’t want to live in a world where my friends can’t love who they want to or be who they are. I don’t want to live in a world where I live in fear that my basic human rights can be taken away from me. I don’t want to live in a world where someone is killed because of the colour of their skin. 

This is how I see it, if we don’t start the change now then who will?

Remember Only the Young can Run. Let’s do it let’s run to change the world. 

Xoxo, 

“I’m doing good, I’m on some new shit.” (the 1, folklore 2020, Taylor Swift)

This is something that resonates with me entirely. For years, I used to do everything to please people around me, but where was that getting me? 

Well I know where it was getting me...no where. 

I let people push me around, and dictate my narrative, but one day it just clicked. Why was I letting people do that?

When I stopped caring what other people thought of me was when I really figured out who I am. I’m a girl who is unapologetically herself. I love Taylor Swift. Not gonna apologize. I believe in equality for everyone. I’ll tell you if you are discriminating and I don’t care what you think about me after that. I love fashion that’s out there. I’m gonna look like I’m walking down the streets of New York to go and grab a bag of milk. 

Listening to what I wanted helped me feel better. I’m succeeding in school, at work and on my social media pages. I feel good to wake up in the morning. Like life is worth living. 

I bled and grew from it. I still have the scars from the past, but am an entirely different person. A happy person. An accomplished person. 

The experiences I had made me a better person and I truly am doing good and am on some new shit. 

“I’m so sick of running as fast as I can. Wondering if I’d get there quicker if I was a man” - Taylor Swift (The Man, Lover)

I’m sitting here on international women's day thinking about every women who's had an impact on my life. Everyone who’s made me who I am today. So I guess you all have these women to thank for making me...me:

My Mom,

My Aunt,

Elle Woods (I know fictional, but still relevant),

Anna Wintour,

and finally my goddess Taylor Swift. 

I could go on and on about all these women, but I specifically want to thank Taylor. 

I’ve been looking up Taylor since I was 6 years old, and I'll be 22 this year. So it say she's had a huge impact on my life definitely wouldn’t be an exaggeration. She’s had to go through so much. She’s been scrutinized left, right and centre. Always being judged for just being herself. She’s been judged for how many men she's dated (WHICH IS A NORMAL AMOUNT). She’s gone through so much and always remained strong. She’s also always used her voice to stand up for other women all around the world, which is amazing. 

She’s a phenomenal role model for young women and if anyone says otherwise...well they are wrong. #sorrynotsorry

In 2019, Taylor released a song called the man (where that lyric is from) and it is nothing short from the truth. Everyday women are judged for doing the exact same thing a man does. “A man does something, it’s strategic; a woman does the same thing it’s calculated. A man is allowed to reacted; a woman can only over-react” (Taylor Swift). 

So why is the world like this?

Why are women only allowed to over-react? Why are we still judged for every move we make? Why are we still expected to take on traditional roles? Why can’t we be “the man?”

I have no idea, but I do know it’s time to change it. TO SMASH THE GLASS CEILING. 

Women must support each other first, then the men will follow behind us. We are on our way to making this world a more equal place, but still have many steps to take. I want to be one of these women to take these steps. I want to follow in Taylor’s footsteps and become “The Man.” 

Let’s change the world. One women at a time. 

I’ll leave you on one final quote from Taylor.

“If I was out flashing my dollars, I’d be a bitch, not a baller. They’d paint me out to be bad, so it’s okay that I’m mad.”

Get mad and change the world.

Xoxo,

“They told me all of my cages were mental, so I got wasted like all my potential. And my words shoot to kill when I’m mad...I have a lot of regrets about that.” - Taylor Swift (this is me trying, folklore 2020)

Do you ever feel that no matter what you do it’ll never be enough? It’ll never be right? It’s like you’re fighting to prove yourself time and time again. You can just never can seem to please anyone.

But who are you trying to prove yourself too? 

No, seriously...think about it for a minute. Why do you want to prove yourself to people who never will take you seriously or will never see your potential? Why do you want that to destroy you on the inside. 

I know 100% what this is like. Trying to please everyone so much to the point you run yourself into the ground. Your mood changes. Your outlook on life changes. Every little thing changes about you and it changes fast. 

For me, I noticed I became more angry and resentful towards the people around me. It would take one instant for me to snap on them and kill them with my words. I definitely became my most defensive when people would say something negative about me. 

Wanna know an example?

I mean, of course you do or else you wound’t be reading my blog/diary. 

Anyways for years, I have struggled and still do struggle with body image (undiagnosed body dysmorphia), so whenever anyone has anything negative to say about my body or another girl just passing by, I get so mad. Especially if it’s a male doing so. It just makes me so angry and I will keep running my mouth until I know I have potentially made that person feel as bad as what they just said. I know I probably shouldn’t do that, but when you are trying so hard to overcome these insecurities and you hear someone say it out loud it opens that wound back up again. 

It’s awful. 

So I guess the moral of what I’m saying tonight at 10:33 pm is that you don’t need to try so hard to prove yourself to others. Be happy with you, and maybe don’t let your words shoot to kill when you're mad because that might just cause more problems. 

xoxo, 

Writer's block…What a thing.

Do you ever feel so not creative (is that proper grammar?) that you think you can't get anything out of your brain onto paper? Because same!!!

That has been my struggle while thinking about what to write this blog on. I keep writing drafts but can never finish them because I lack so much creativity. Should I blame the lockdown? Probably. I mean, we've all been blaming the lockdown for everything else, so I guess I can blame the lockdown for my lack of creativity.

I also couldn't decide whether I wanted my blog to be serious or be fun. So I thought about what one of those categories I relate to. So being a 21-year-old student, I realized I relate to the fun category. The side that loves social media, that loves to share my passions in the most ME! Way possible.

So what do I do when I lack all creative energy? Well, I listen to Taylor Swift. She never seems to have writer's block (She put out two albums in 6 months…like what?) I love to listen to her lyrics, like really really listen to every word she's saying and connect it to something in my life. It's weird, but I promise it works! So why not use that as the central concept of this blog? I mean, I already named my blog My Champagne Problems, which is a Taylor Swift song.

My life revolves around her music and always has. It probably always will. Sooooo why not share my love for her music with the rest of the world while connecting it to real-life situations. I don't even think people know how easy it is to connect to her music because they still think of Taylor as someone who only writes breakup songs, but she writes stories. She's a storyteller.

So how do I make this into a blog that people will be interested in?

Here's the idea…

I share some of my favourite lyrics and dissect them. I'll give them meaning to the world around us. How social media has affected us (and Taylor because we know she's had a rough go when it goes to social media…the great swiftie battle of 2016). I want to make people relate to these lyrics in the same way I do. I want everyone to know what these lyrics mean. Why are they so important in a world filled with people who don't feel fully heard? Why should we look at them more closely? We're going to figure this all out together throughout this blog.

Also this is perfect timing since Taylor is rereleasing all her old music (so she can own it), so why not take a trip down memory lane with her. 

So let me officially introduce myself…

I'm Greer. I'm 21 years old. Female. Canadian. Swiftie. I'm the writer behind this blog and can't wait to share my ideas on some of my favourite lyrics that exist in this world. The songs that make me think, and I hope it will make everyone reading this think. Consider this an insight to my journal, or a trip inside my brain. Whatever option you like best!

See you in my next post!