HOW TAYLOR SWIFT’S “LOVE STORY” MUSIC VIDEO
INSPIRED REMEMBRANCE
The “Love Story” music video premiered in the fall of 2008. The first time I watched it, I was entranced. Taylor sees a guy while walking through campus, and the moment their eyes connect, the scene flashes to the two of them dancing at a beautiful ball dressed in clothes that appear to be from around the year 1815. It’s magical to watch, and the video is so amazing that it gave me chills. I watched it over and over again, and a story started to piece together in my mind. A story about a girl reincarnated from Regency Era, England, who doesn’t realize it until her soul mate transfers into her school and triggers her memories to gradually return to her.
In that semester at school, I was taking a class called Intro to Creative Writing. One of our first big assignments in class was to write anything we wanted and bring it in to share with everyone. Since the characters and scenes that came to me while watching “Love Story” refused to leave my mind, I decided that for the project, I would write the first chapter of what I then called “The Story Inspired by ‘Love Story.’”
After completing the chapter, I stared at it for about an hour, worrying about what my classmates would think after reading it. I assumed everyone else would write about “normal”topics—not reincarnation and seeing your soulmate from the past for the first time! What if they thought what I wrote was weird? I nearly erased it in favor of turning something else in, but then I remembered something Taylor had said:
"If you’re lucky enough to be different from everyone else, don't change."
I listened to her advice. Yes, what I wrote was going to be way different from what everyone else in class wrote, but I was okay with that. And after I read the chapter aloud to the class, I was amazed to find out that everyone in my class, including my teacher, loved it. Actually, they more than loved it—they wanted to read more!
But I had never written a novel before, and the idea of making the plunge and going for it intimidated me. What if I failed and couldn’t finish it? That worried me, but again, I remembered something Taylor had said:
"To me, fearless isn't not having fears; it's not that you're not afraid of anything. I think that being fearless is having a lot of fears, but you jump anyway."
So I jumped.
And now, three years after I saw the “Love Story” music video for the first time, my debut novel Remembrance is finally available for everyone to read. I’m so happy to be able to share it with you. I can only hope that if you choose to read it, you end up enjoying it as much as I loved writing it!
Thank you for taking the time to read my story about how “Love Story” and Taylor Swift helped me get to where I am today!
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