Martha Murphy

Audio Narrative Script

You know those moments when you meet someone for the first time, and you just yearn to be

their friend? Maybe you don’t; it happens almost instantaneously, but it is in these short

moments, that we are changed for good. And that’s what it was like. Instantaneous.

Indispensable. Infinite.

“Martha! Come in here, you have to listen to this!”

My triplet sister Kate calls to me from our shared bedroom, where she has YouTube, some

website I was vaguely familiar with, pulled up on her laptop.

“This girl, Taylor Swift, she sings country music, and she’s only 16 and she’s AMAZING!”

“Alright, whatever”, I thought. She’s probably just the next Lizzie McGuire, Disney star, fit-the-

mold singer who is on the brink of her five year claim to fame. As I stood behind Kate, watching

a wide-eyed, exceedingly talented girl twirl around on a front porch to her new hit “Our Song” in

a frilly dress, I couldn’t help but think about how badly I would want to be this girl’s best friend

if I ever had the privilege of meeting her. Somewhere between the personalized 13 on her hand,

to her sparkly six string guitar, to her brilliantly relatable lyrics, this cowboy boot wearing, curly

haired sweetheart had just won my heart.

At eleven years old, I was pretty malleable, and like many others, I instantly became a fan. This

girl was the missing jig-saw piece of my eternally puzzling pre-teen years. I needed a role-

model, and this girl had just unknowingly signed the papers for my “big sis” application. Old

pictures of my amateurly curled blond hair and country inspired accessories to my dull catholic

school uniform blatantly revealed one thing: I wanted to be just like her.

Years passed, and just about everyone knew about my pathetically endearing Taylor Swift

obsession. Teammates, friends, classmates, and even teachers, whether they wanted to or not,

were very much aware of how much impact this world-famous icon had on my life. To them, I

was just another one of her millions of fans, memorizing lyrics and wishing I knew her in some

other life. However, this wasn’t enough for me. Taylor Swift would continue to inspire me in

ways I had never imagined.

One summer night when my brother wasn’t home, I snuck into his room despite the countless

times I had been told otherwise and picked up his acoustic guitar. I had watched him play it

many times before, so fluidly, seamlessly looking up the chords of the latest Green Day song on

the desktop computer.

“It can’t be so hard.” I thought, and in my early high school days, I was desperately searching for

an outlet in which to convey my emotions and creative energy. Yet again, YouTube was pulled

up on my phone, and I searched “How to play Fearless by Taylor Swift”. It happened so quickly.

By the end of the night, I had memorized the chords to each song on her Fearless album, and my

calloused fingertips and my visible excitement were the earliest evidence of my new favorite

hobby.

Since that summer, guitar playing and songwriting has become part of my identity. I performed

in my high school talent show, and even Accousticafe here at Notre Dame. I easily owe all my

musical talent and performance notoriety to my very first role model, and for that I will always

be grateful. All it took was a quick google search of “the girl who will change your life”, and

there she was. Instantaneous. Indispensable. Infinite.