I was just at my desk minding my own business, when our Slack channel erupted with a post announcing Taylor Swift's engagement to Travis Kelce. Along with the rest of the internet, I flipped through the slideshow of generic-looking engagement poses of the couple, including a closeup of Taylor's ring that appears only slightly smaller than a Super Bowl one. I was ready to fire up a zinger about the pop icon's announcement, style, anything—as a sometime social critic and off-hours Gen X slacker, that's my persona—but I had a surprising reaction instead. I burst into tears.
I'm a Gen Xer Who Immediately Started Crying When I Read the Taylor Engagement News
It's the end of an Era
Published Aug 26, 2025
•7:36pm
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Don't get the wrong idea, I'm no intense Swiftie. And as a Gen Xer, sardonic is my brand. However, I enjoy Swift's cultural product—the songs, the videos, the movie. I was lucky enough to go to her tour in person! And I've enjoyed dissecting the discourse around her style evolution and sex life. You know, as one does around the water cooler about someone you don't even know. But this announcement, with its loveably geeky posing and caption ("Your English teacher and your gym teacher are getting married") just...got me. It's a little firecracker emoji exploding romance and hope in a pretty shaky world of political fights, economic struggles for everyone and the indignities of aging for me. Taylor's getting married!
Ofc, not everyone's feeling this way. My 19-year-old son, a pop music fan who sings along to Midnights, opined that "at the end of the day, she's a billionaire who doesn't weigh in on important world issues. Billie Eilish has a lot of political opinions." (To which I must gently say: Shut it, son.) My boyfriend, a music bizzer who has championed Swift since her Nashville days, texted me that the announcement is "just in time for the NFL season AND her new album!" before asking me what the estimated price of the rock on her finger is.
Enough. Neither of you are getting it. This is our girl Taylor we're talking about, the home girl who once hosted scores of young fans in her home for listening parties, who let all of America sing along with her heartbreak, who fought battles both public and private and still showed up for us dancing with a broken heart.
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I feel like I'm letting a part of her go, the young Taylor I think of who lives in a world of anthems and kitty cats and friendship bracelets and boyfriend feuds. She's growing up, I'm happy for her, but I see time marching on.
To be sure, I'm embarrassed about my selfish and overly emotional reaction. This has nothing to do with me, and low key I'm afraid it signals some sort of parasocial creep disorder. This intensity—which, let me be clear is equal parts sadness for the girl I'm losing and happiness for the union Swift is enjoying—has an emotional recall, for me, of Princess Diana's terrible death in 1997. Back then, I didn't understand why everyone was taking that so personally; and now, I'm wondering how can everyone not be feeling this so so much.
Which is exactly the point—for me, this engagement is finally a sign of hope for union, for love, for connection. My whole life, the divorce rate has been 50 percent, and frankly I never let myself believe in romantic happily ever afters. But hearing about the country's equivalent to the king and the queen of the prom getting hitched? That's giving me just enough bandwidth to think maybe a couple of crazy kids can make it, after all.
And heaven help me, now I really want that special "tiny bubbles in champagne" vinyl of the upcoming The Life of a Showgirl.
