Even though it feels to me like there's never been a time we didn't have this bouncy masterpiece of a song in our lives, Taylor Swift celebrated the one year anniversary of "Shake It Off" via Twitter on Wednesday, reminding us all of our age. That means it was just 12 months ago that Swift danced through her livestream announcement, announcing her next album's release date, premiering its cover art, introducing us to the first single, and giving us its title — 1989 — in one fell swoop. It was a big day for all of us, and I remember it vividly, in part because my life has changed so much since then. I was sitting at a desk at a completely different job, a week out from a pretty serious breakup, at the beginning of what I now see was a slow side into a low-level depression.
And things have gotten way better for me since then (I promise!), but it all pales in comparison to the year that Swift has had. For every new job I've picked up, and new friend I've made, Swift is over there with a new armful of awards, list of achievements, and things that, for anyone, else would be a bucket-list achievement, but, for her, is just another year. Or more specifically, Aug. 18, 2014 to Aug. 18, 2015. Take a look at what's gone down for her in the past twelve months.
1. She Started Dating Calvin Harris
Finally, someone she seems actually well-matched with, who understands her life and line of work.
2. She Released 1989
Hey, let's not forget this, or the fact that it went Platinum and has now sold over 8 million copies.
3. She Started The 1989 World Tour
And she's still on it, so anything can happen!
4. She Became A Godmother
Jaime King named Swift the godmother of her lil baby son Leo, which has gotta be super touching.
5. She Figured Out Memes
And nothing was ever the same.
6. She Was Named The Tourism Ambassador Of New York City
And, oh boy, were people excited about it.
7. She Had A Star-Studded Birthday Party
Can't even talk about how jealous I was after I saw that photo. Justin Timberlake and Jay Z and Beyoncé at your birthday? Oh sure, same here, they were on my guest list too.
8. Britney Spears Talked About Her
9. She Expanded Her Best Friend Collection By About 10,000
All in a year's work!
10. She Took On Katy Perry
If anything, the feud that created "Bad Blood" (allegedly) only made me like Swift more, because it proved that she was a real person with likes and dislikes instead of a very polite, talented robot.
11. She Took On Spotify
She pulled her catalogue from the music-streaming service, and she's never looked back!
12. She Earned A Victory With Apple
When Apple Music had a policy of not paying artists whose music was listened to during new users' three-month trial period, Swift wrote them a letter of concern, which led them to announce they were changing that policy. Champion!
13. She Wrote An Op-Ed For The Wall Street Journal
Getting published in the WSJ ? NBD. (Opposite.)
14. She Was Showered With Recognition
In the past year, Swift has done everything from becoming the only person to win Billboard's Person Of The Year twice to be included in the Time 100 and raking in dozens of music-related awards. You go girl.
15. She Learned A Little Something From Nicki Minaj
As uncomfortable as that stand-off between Minaj and Swift was, I'm hopeful that it signals a change for Swift moving forward, where she opens her mind to the experiences of others — specifically women of color in the industry — instead of blindly moving forward with her own stuff.
So yeah, not that anyone's keeping track, but the last year has been very good to our girl Taylor Swift. And you disagree... you can go ahead and just shake that off.
