Last night, Taylor Swift kicked off her Reputation tour by making up with Katy Perry and breaking the silence about another famous feud. Yeah, you could say it was eventful. And it all started with a couple of snakes.
Of course, snake imagery isn’t new for Taylor Swift. She first used the reptile to tease the release of Reputation, and since then snakes have been integrated into her music videos and, starting last night, part of her stage set. But as many people know, people first started associating Taylor with snakes after Kim Kardashian’s fateful tweet soon after their feud began.
Wait it's legit National Snake Day?!?!?They have holidays for everybody, I mean everything these days! 🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍
— Kim Kardashian West (@KimKardashian) July 17, 2016
During her concert, Swift opened up about why she’s embraced the snake imagery, as well as indirectly opening up about the Kardashian feud:
“A couple of years ago, someone called me a snake on social media and it caught on. And then a lot of people were calling me a lot of things on social media. And I went through some really low times for a while because of it. I went through some times when I didn’t know if I was going to get to do this anymore.”
But there’s a reason Swift told her fans about the feud, and it wasn’t to talk smack. She wanted to remind them that even when things got hard, it was important to persevere.
“I wanted to send a message to you guys that if someone uses name-calling to bully you on social media, and even if a lot of people jump on board with it, that doesn’t have to defeat you. It can strengthen you instead. And I think something that came out of it that was good is that I learned a really important lesson that I’ve been telling you from the stage for about 10 years, but I never had to learn it so harshly myself — and that lesson has to do with how much you value your reputation.”
And Taylor Swift has done just that. She’s a controversial pop princess who has had her name dragged in the mud more than once, but she’s certainly found a way to bounce back, thanks to the people who mattered in her life: “I think that the lesson is that you shouldn’t care so much if you feel misunderstood by a lot of people who don’t know you, as long as you feel understood by the people who do know you; the people who will show up for you, the people who see you as a human being.”
Like her or not, you could learn a lot from Taylor Swift. After all, everyone will find themselves in a situation when others will see the worst in them. At the end of the day, the haters don’t matter – it’s the people who root for you that do. 
