Dear Taylor,

In just a few days, you’ll be in Charlotte for the 4th time in your touring career. My girls cannot wait! Actually, one of them doesn’t know yet, it’s a surprise, kinda how I like to do things when you roll into town. Your timing is always P-E-R-F-E-C-T, it’s like we’re on the same milestone pattern. You always take the stage right as my girls are finishing one stage and beginning another, and tickets to your show make the best gift ever!

As I write this I am listening to you on Pandora and reminiscing. You are literally the soundtrack to my girls’ childhood and tween-hood, and I can’t help but walk down memory lane every time I hear your voice.

The first time we went to your concert, my oldest was graduating 5th grade and I decided on a whim to buy a suite for your Speak Now Concert – over the top, I know. Some moms do Disney, this Smarty Mama does music! My first TSwizzle experience was supposed to be my biggest Mom moment ever, all perfectly planned with the surprise of a lifetime for my daughters and their besties to celebrate moving onto middle school. Well, we know how that played out. You got bronchitis, the concert was postponed and my Surprise of a Lifetime was Ruined. Temporarily. What I didn’t realize was that you and your awesome mama had some fabulous plans up your sleeve, because you actually cared that my surprise was ruined! Mama Swift read my tiny ‘ole Southern blog and gave us the biggest surprise of our lifetime and an even bigger “Best Mom Moment” than I could have ever imagined when you finally came that November. My girls and I still talk about this today, and we all three smile from ear to ear and say simultaneously “#bestmomever”!

I remember when I first heard your music – Love Story had me at hello. I first heard this song on the radio and can totally visualize my oldest and her BFF belting out these tunes at age 7. We immediately went home and downloaded your entire Fearless album – that was the beginning of our Plym Love Story with Taylor Swift.

We have the most beautiful and innocent memories to this album and spent many Friday nights doing dance parties and karaoke to your tunes. My girls were the cutest little girls on the planet (in my eyes) and they looked up to you so much. When your new album, Speak Now, entered our home, we could all relate to your lyrics on so many different levels – mothers and daughters alike. For the big 5th grade talent show (and before our best concert experience ever:-), our girls sang an acoustic version of Never Grow Up with the guitar, all while the slide show from K-5th grade was playing on the big screen behind them. It was absolutely perfect, there was not a dry eye in the house.

Fast forward four years later, here we are with a double graduation. I have one entering high school, gulp, and one middle school, double gulp! You know, we’re in the You Belong With Me stage – no other explanation needed :-).

In a sense, you’ve been my side kick while raising my beautiful girls. You were there for all of our biggies: our first 5th grade graduation, a fun birthday treat two years later, and now, you’re here for my girls’ double graduation: 5th and 8th grade graduations all the same week of your concert. We’re in a lather/rinse/repeat pattern for this 5th grade graduation. My youngest daughter and her besties are finding out at graduation that we’re headed uptown to your concert. Although, please don’t get sick this time – I think I might actually pull off the surprise! How great is that graduation present?! #bestmomevertake2

I’m sitting here this Thursday night getting our “Taylor’s T Room Jamz Take 3” playlist ready for the pre-concert surprise festivities, since this is our 3rd Taylor Swift concert. I’m sprinkling in my favorite songs of yours over the years that remind me of my girls growing up, and way too fast by the way. Your music makes me laugh, cry, and smile; but most of all, it reminds me of my sweet girls at some amazing moment in their life. Whether it was a graduation, a carpool ride to dance class, a birthday party, a sleepover or just an image of their faces captured in time – your music is always on in our lives.

And, the best part is, I know they feel the exact same way. We have this. We have YOUR music. Your lyrics. Memories we made with you in the background. You’re one of our most favorite common threads, and we can’t thank you enough for it.

In a time, where anything and everything is available at their finger tips, I always knew we were safe with your music, your guidance, your leadership and your poise. Your music has always been playing in the background of my girls’ entire childhood. For that special gift, I am forever grateful.

So Taylor, thank you for being you, for being the best role model for my girls, for writing music that mothers and daughters can enjoy together, and for being a part of my girls’ lives while they have grown up before my eyes.

Welcome to the Queen City {early} – we’re thrilled that you’re coming! And we can’t wait to rock Time Warner Cable on Monday night, for the 3rd time in my parenting career!

Fondly,
Jen Plym

P.S. Here are my girls when they first met you:

and here they are today:

Never grow up, right?;-)