NEWSTaylor Swift Looks to the Future
Nov. 13 2009, Published 1:00 p.m. ET
Now that Taylor Swift has become the belle of the ball during the CMA Awards held in Nashville this week by sweeping all four categories including entertainer of the year, the Pennsylvania-born singer has amazed even herself.
“I’ll never forget this moment, because in this moment, everything that I have ever wanted has just happened to me,” she said upon accepting the accolade.
Just last year she was telling me how she hoped to headline and sell out 15,000-seat arenas in five years, and win entertainer of the year at the CMA Awards in ten years. Check, check.
But she doesn’t take all the credit.
“I definitely know that there’s somebody looking out for me, and it’s wonderful to know that all this has happened,” the 19-year-old singer says of her faith in a higher power. “There has to be somebody up there holding all the cards, because I could never do this alone.”
Since winning entertainer of the year came so easily for her, what’s been her biggest challenge?
“The biggest challenge I’ve overcome would have to be graduating high school,” she tells me. “That wasn’t a big challenge, but it was something that I’m really proud of finishing. I governed myself to do home-schooling, and I could’ve let it slide, but instead I stayed on top of it, which I’m pretty excited about.”
But don’t expect to see her pull a Natalie Portman or Emma Watson by going off to an Ivy League university.
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“College is not something that I’m going to be doing in the near future,” she tells me. “Honestly, I thought I was going to go to college. I always did when I was a little kid. My parents both went to college, they both have business degrees and are all into that, so I thought I was going to go to college like they did. Then, this music career kind of happened.”
She continues, “I was always keeping college in the back of my mind because I didn’t really think it was going to all work out with music. I didn’t ever want to go there and assume anything. But now that things are going pretty well, it’s looking like this is going to be something that I’m doing for awhile. I’m crossing my fingers for that. If not, I’ll go back to school or I’ll just be a songwriter.”
College or not, Taylor intends to stay squeaky clean.
“The pressure to be a good role model makes me a better person, actually,” she says. “I like it. It makes you keep your life in line, definitely, knowing that people are watching. One of the most amazing compliments in the world is when a mother walks up and says ‘thank you for being a good role model for my daughter’ because that compliments your character.”
Where did she get her drive to head to Nashville every weekend beginning at age 13?
"I guess I found something that I loved, and was good at, and just never stopped and never put it down," she says. "Music was the one thing that I felt like I was comfortable doing. It was the first time I felt at home – when I started playing music and writing songs. I started writing when I was twelve – that’s when I started playing guitar too – and I remember when I wrote my first song, I just felt like all my life I’d been trying to find something that I was good at, trying to find something I was passionate about, and something I loved. I found music, and it clicked. It was just this moment where it clicked, and I’ve been writing songs ever since. I never stopped being in love with it."
Here’s a pic:
