Taylor Swift, 1989 World Tour

“I can’t promise you that you’ll ever live in a world where people don’t hurt your feelings. But I can promise you that if you keep on moving and taking one day at a time, the opinions and words of people who hurt you, will matter less and less to you. People are going to say things about us that aren’t true. And from talking to you guys so much and getting to know you, it has never been more apparent to me that it is very difficult to feel good about yourself in 2015. Every single day we go online and we scroll through the highlights of other people’s awesome lives. But we don’t see the highlights of our own lives… all we see is the “behind the scenes” of our lives. We see every little moment from when we wake up and think, “oh god, not feeling my hair today”. You see your doubts, you see your concerns, you see your fears… You’re the only one inside your brain feeling all of the anxieties and hearing the voices that are telling you you can’t be who you want to be or that you want to be more like that other person over there. Let me tell you that people are mean to each other, but no voices are as mean as our own voices are to ourselves. And, I just want you in those moments to look in a mirror and understand what you ARE and what you ARE NOT. You are NOT somebody else’s opinion of you. You are NOT damaged goods just because you’ve made a few mistakes in your life. You are NOT going nowhere just because you haven’t arrived at your final destination yet. You ARE your own definition of beautiful and worthwhile. What you ARE is wiser and stronger BECAUSE you’ve made mistakes. What you ARE is BRAVE for living your life in a daring way that would cause you to take the risk it takes to make mistakes. What you ARE is someone whose walked through a bunch of rain storms but continues to put one foot in front of the other. I have realized that it is not about being “perfect” or feeling perfect, its about getting on with things and realizing that you are happy TODAY. And I think, in 25 years I’m still learning every single day, but one thing that I do know is that pain actually does make your stronger… And that walking through rain storms does NOT make you damaged, if you keep going it actually makes you clean.”

-- Taylor Swift, 1989 World Tour,