Quote Of The Day By Taylor Swift: 'I'm Trying To Tell You That Losing Things Doesn't Just Mean Losing. A Lot Of The Time...'

If you think Taylor Swift is just a big pop star, think bigger. She's breathing the rare air occupied for all-time greats, such as Michael Jackson and Elvis Presley, as she establishes herself as a generational talent.

Swifties treat December 13, 1989 as an important day of remembrance, since it marks the birthday of one Taylor Alison Swift, who was born in West Reading, Pennsylvania. As a teenager, Swift impressed everybody with her prodigious musical ability, proving that age is only a number when you got it — that special X factor — and boy, does she have it in droves. She stormed to the top of the charts, achieving an astonishing 16 No. 1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 (and counting), while also building a worshipping legion of fans across the globe who'll travel far and wide to see her perform on the biggest stages.

Awards and fame followed — in fact, Paul McCartney even played a Beatles song at Swift's wedding to Travis Kelce. To reach these new frontiers and higher echelons of existence, though, she has had to make big decisions and sacrifices along the way too, and it's for this reason that she's today's quote of the day.

"I'm trying to tell you that losing things doesn't just mean losing. A lot of the time, when we lose things, we gain things, too."

Taylor Swift said this in a speech at New York University's 2022 commencement ceremony. These empowering words arrived after she discussed her own obsession with chasing perfection, as well as the mistakes that will still inevitably happen, despite everybody's best intentions. Even though it feels like you may have lost something, and people may dislike you, life has a way of balancing itself out in the end, so — to quote one of her most well-known songs — shake it off.

It's exactly the words that college students need to hear, because college is a time in people's lives where every decision feels greater and heavier than what it actually is. Hearing somebody of Swift's stature saying that it'll all be okay is music to the ears.

As Taylor Swift explained, every decision, or choice, has a consequence. Sometimes, it results in you losing something — or even a special person — in your life, and while it can be brutal at the time, it may lead you to wander down another road you never imagined traveling in the first place, where a new and better path of opportunity reveals itself.

Swift knows all about this, as she has lived a majority of her life in the spotlight. With her grueling touring schedule and staggering career demands, it's obvious that she's had to make tough choices along the way to reach the pinnacle. In all likelihood, more than a few of these decisions have disappointed her, or others, but judging by her ever-growing success and reputation, she still finds herself on the trajectory that she's meant to be on.

To accept imperfection is one of the most freeing feelings that anybody can experience. Sometimes, you have to take the leap of uncertainty and latch onto the rocket ship of faith. It is about trusting in the universe's plan that it'll all work out in the end.

• "I hope that you will show up to work even when the idea fairy doesn't."

• "I think that sometimes being fearless is having fears but jumping anyway."

• "You don't have to forgive and you don't have to forget to move on. You can move on without any of those things happening. You just become indifferent, and then you move on."

• "Different phases of your life have different levels of deep, traumatizing heartbreak."

• "It's so refreshing to see people move on from the idea that all I do is sit in my lair and write songs about boys for revenge."