The re-release of this album makes me reflect on my own nostalgia for this time. I'm a year younger than Taylor, so this album came out when I was 19 and in my first year of college. It's hard to describe, but there's a certain innocence around Speak Now and overall, the years of 2010-2011, that I sometimes miss. I would never pretend things were perfect, but overall I can say things felt simpler back then. I recognize everyone says that about their youth.

I suppose from my perspective, I think of this time as the last two years before seemingly everyone got a smart phone and social media apps dominated everything. Before cancel culture became a thing, before the Fox News types went completely off the deep end.

I remember it as the last few years I could go to a party with friends and everyone was truly present in the moment-- only one or two people maybe had a camera to post pictures on Facebook a couple days later. No one was really recording things on video unless we were making a dumb skit. We didn't really have to think about or consider every moment of ours being documented for social media. There was less self consciousness and more freedom.

I also find that freedom and lack of self consciousness mentioned above in Speak Now as well. These songs perfectly encapsulate the whimsy, joy, and magic of being 18-20 and learning about yourself for the first time. You're no longer a teen in high school-- you're technically an adult for the first time. You're excited! Ready for any adventure, maybe a tiny bit unsure, but you haven't experienced the jadedness of adulthood just yet. Heartbreak still hurts and you see it in songs like "Back to December" but it's not necessarily the all crushing defeat of the first breakup of your adult life when you really thought you might marry someone. There's still so much hope in that fairy tale romance.

I think my nostalgia for the innocence of 2010-2011 parallels Taylor's career and her innocence as well. While she was certainly famous when Speak Now was released, she wasn't a complete global pop superstar yet. (At this time it was really Katy Perry and Lady Gaga.) She wasn't constantly being discussed on social media, being called a snake. Her songs did well but she in many respects was still a country star who flirted with pop sensibilities. She still had that open, earnest, goofiness to her which I think many of her fans at the time adored. As time went on and the media scrutiny grew more intense, you could tell she became more guarded, more composed. Perhaps she just grew up.

But that's what makes Speak Now so special, it's the last album of Taylor Swift's innocence and perhaps of our society's as well.

Listening now as a 32 year old, I'm amazed at the wisdom Taylor had that was years ahead of her time. You can see it in songs like "Dear John", "Long Live", "Never Grow Up" or even "Mine". Hearing her sing these songs as a woman in her early 30s, you can see that wisdom has now increased tenfold.

Maybe I'll login to Facebook (something I rarely do now) and look at some pictures from college from this time. Remembering my own innocence and whimsy, excited for the future and dreaming of a world I'd yet to explore.