Let’s analogizing a (romance) relationship as a tropical forest, with all of its maze of trees, wild animals, and dangerous gorges; then mine is a wilderness jungle. It’s scary and terrifying, of course, but at the same time, it’s adventurous and full of excitements. Taylor Swift said about one of her hits called “Out Of The Woods”, that throughout the relationship she told in that song, all that she could remember feeling was anxiety. Her anxiety comes from the feeling that it is very fragile; that it feels very tentative. She always feels like, “Okay, what’s the next hurdle? What’s the next thing that’s going to deter this? How long do we have before this turns into an awful mess?” Some of relationships can be really solid and healthy, and that’s the kind of what we hoped for. But that’s not always what we get. And it doesn’t mean that it’s not special and extraordinary, just to have a relationship that’s fragile. And it’s somehow meaningful in that fragility. Indeed, it’s a never ending learning process. And this process will mean nothing if we just give up on it instead of keeps trying. Life, indeed, is a process of trials and errors; until we success. The difference between me and Taytay is that she’s already out of the woods since her relationship was already over, while I, on the other side; I’m not out of the woods yet. However, this is what I want; because I know I’m not alone in this wood. I and he, we, live in it. And I believe that we’ll make it through, together.
“Looking at it now, it all seems
so simple. We were lying on your couch, I remember. You took a Polaroid of us,
then discovered. The rest of the world was black and white, but we were in
screaming color. And I remember thinking. Are we out of the woods yet? Are we
in the clear yet?” –Taylor Swift, Out
Of The Woods
As I’ve mentioned
above, the song I would like to discuss now is a song performed by Taylor Swift
titled “Out Of The Woods”. It was released three times as a single. The first one
was on October 14th 2014 as the first promotional single taken from her fifth studio album, “1989”. The second
one was on December 31st 2015, which was a live version at Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve event on ABC. And the last one was on February 5th 2016 as an official radio mainstream single. The
album “1989” itself was released on October 27th 2014. “Out Of The Woods” is a
synthpop track written by Swift herself along with Jack Antonoff. The
accompanying music video directed by Joseph Kahn premiered
on Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve
with Ryan Seacrest on ABC on
December 31st 2015. Swift said about the song, “The relationship ended sooner than it should've because there was a
lot of fear involved. And that song touches on a huge sense of anxiety that
was, kind of, coursing through that particular relationship, because we really
felt the heat of every single person in the media thinking they could draw up
the narrative of what we were going through and debate and speculate. I don't
think it's ever going to be easy for me to find love and block out all those
screaming voices.”
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| "Out Of The Woods" single cover | source: en.wikipedia.org |
Have you ever been in a (romance) relationship that seems very fragile and tentative? Or, perhaps are you currently in that kind of relationship? Well, every relationship has its own state of fragility. Meanwhile, as for tentativeness, I guess at some point everyone who’s in a relationship has ever wondered whether it is going to last. Everyone has their own insecurity. It then depends on how they deal with that insecurity. Even when two people are so attached to each other, like nothing in this world could come in between them, they often find it hard to deal with their own internal insecurity. Even when they are so great together, have real conversations, and communicate so well with each other, they often ask themselves whether it’s real and for good. “Looking at it now, it all seems so simple. We were lying on your couch, I remember. You took a Polaroid of us, then discovered. The rest of the world was black and white, but we were in screaming color. And I remember thinking. Are we out of the woods yet? Are we in the clear yet?”
Togetherness; it’s a
simple term yet not a simple thing to do. One time everything seems so easy,
the next time everything gets hard. Some relationships are made to be broken. Some
even aren’t meant to be. Some relationship could last forever. While some other
only last for a while. Some relationship needs the right timing to finally be. Sometimes,
no matter how hard we try to fight for it and hold onto it, some relationship
could just slip away from our fingers. Once it has slipped away, we can never
be assured that it would stay forever. And that’s what I feel. He has left
before. And undoubtedly, there is this kind of insecurity inside of me that he
would easily break apart from me again. “Looking
at it now, last December, we were built to fall apart, then fall back together.
Your necklace hanging from my neck, the night we couldn’t quite forget, when we
decided to move the furniture so we could dance. Baby, like we stood a chance,
two paper airplanes flying. And I remember thinking. Are we out of the woods
yet? Are we in the clear yet?”
During the hard times
I have in this relationship, the strange thing is that all that I can remember
is the good times. Most of the time, I cannot remember anymore why I am so mad
at him, because I miss him just too much to be angry anymore. Every second and
minute spend without him is like a tormenting small room. “Remember when you hit the brakes too soon? Twenty stitches in the
hospital room. When you started crying, baby, I did, too, but when the sun came
up, I was looking at you.” I always give him space whenever he needs time
to be alone for a while. And somehow I just know that he will come to me again,
eventually. Every time we have a hard time, in the end of the day we understand
that we only have each other to come home to. And somehow that is everything. “Remember when we couldn’t take the heat, I
walked out and said, ‘I’m setting you free,’. But the monsters turned out to be
just trees, and when the sun came up, you were looking at me.” And we
realize that hard times are just obstacles for us to be able to learn the
lesson.
 |
| "1989" album cover | source: en.wikipedia.org |
As I try to analyze why this relationship feels fragile and tentative, I understand that we’re the ones who created it that way in the first place. Everything is clear in terms of feeling we have for each other. But things aren’t clear yet in terms of relation we build. We’re both tired with some kind of common commitment; therefore we created our own version of ‘commitment’. However, its terms and conditions were never clear. There are still questions like, “What are we?”, “How do we define this relationship we have?”, “What should I call you?”; lingering in our minds. However, as time goes by, we clarify those questions one by one. And I think that we’ve had it clear by now. We’re together; simply but not simple. And exactly like what I’ve mentioned above: “Some of relationships can be really solid and healthy, and that’s the kind of what we hoped for. But that’s not always what we get. And it doesn’t mean that it’s not special and extraordinary, just to have a relationship that’s fragile. And it’s somehow meaningful in that fragility.” Through all of this process, we define who we are and become mature as we humbly analyze the problems.
“Remember when we couldn’t take
the heat, I walked out and said, ‘I’m setting you free,’. But the monsters
turned out to be just trees, and when the sun came up, you were looking at me.”
–Taylor Swift, Out Of The Woods
Looking at it now, it all seems so
simple
We were lying on your couch, I remember
You took a Polaroid of us, then discovered
The rest of the world was black and white
We were lying on your couch, I remember
You took a Polaroid of us, then discovered
The rest of the world was black and white
But we were in screaming color
And I remember thinking
Are we out of the woods yet? Are we out of the woods yet?
Are we out of the woods yet? Are we out of the woods?
Are we in the clear yet? Are we in the clear yet?
Are we in the clear yet? In the clear yet? Good
Are we out of the woods?
Looking at it now, last December
We were built to fall apart, then fall back together
Your necklace hanging from my neck, the night we couldn’t quite forget
When we decided to move the furniture so we could dance,
Baby, like we stood a chance, two paper airplanes flying, flying, flying
And I remember thinking
Remember when you hit the brakes too soon? Twenty stitches in the hospital room
When you started crying, baby, I did, too, but when the sun came up, I was looking at you
Remember when we couldn’t take the heat, I walked out and said, “I’m setting you free,”
But the monsters turned out to be just trees, and when the sun came up, you were looking at me
You were looking at me, you were looking at me, I remember, oh, I remember
And I remember thinking
Are we out of the woods yet? Are we out of the woods yet?
Are we out of the woods yet? Are we out of the woods?
Are we in the clear yet? Are we in the clear yet?
Are we in the clear yet? In the clear yet? Good
Are we out of the woods?
Looking at it now, last December
We were built to fall apart, then fall back together
Your necklace hanging from my neck, the night we couldn’t quite forget
When we decided to move the furniture so we could dance,
Baby, like we stood a chance, two paper airplanes flying, flying, flying
And I remember thinking
Remember when you hit the brakes too soon? Twenty stitches in the hospital room
When you started crying, baby, I did, too, but when the sun came up, I was looking at you
Remember when we couldn’t take the heat, I walked out and said, “I’m setting you free,”
But the monsters turned out to be just trees, and when the sun came up, you were looking at me
You were looking at me, you were looking at me, I remember, oh, I remember
Wrote by Mashita Fandia
