The upcoming union of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce may be the closest the U.S. ever gets to having a royal wedding. Like myself, many teenage daughters across the country called to interrupt their mothers’ crammed days on the 26th of last month to announce the good news: superstar Taylor Swift and Kansas City Chiefs’ tight end Travis Kelce are officially engaged.
The couple’s first meeting occurred in the summer of 2023, when Kelce attended Swift’s concert in Kansas City, attempting unsuccessfully to give her a friendship bracelet spelling out his phone number. A few months following this dreamy near-meet-cute, Swift began making appearances at Kelce’s football games, confirming a relationship between the two.
I found out about the engagement from Swift’s Instagram post during my AP Lang class, and as soon as the period ended, I called my mother to share the announcement. My family is from Kansas City, and we are all big lovers of both Taylor Swift and the Chiefs, so this pairing has certainly been a source of joy for us over the last few years.
My mom didn’t pick up, but texted me explaining that she was in a meeting, only to message again a few minutes later saying that her coworker had broken the news, which she had ironically been made aware of by her daughter.
OPRF teacher Cristin Lombardi, who has been a Swiftie since the 2006 release of Swift’s debut single “Tim McGraw,” recalled initially being stunned at the star’s new relationship with Kelce, thinking that it “wouldn’t fulfill her” because Kelce is a “himbo.”
Her opinion officially changed for the better when she watched the episode of the Kelce brothers’ New Heights podcast featuring Swift (released Aug. 13), admiring the match of energy in their sarcastic humor and how much Kelce “adores and celebrates her.”
Lombardi said a student told her about the Swift-Kelce engagement in the middle of her 5th period class, and she immediately ran to the other teachers in the area to tell them, “Remember where you are today,” stating that, “it’s history.”
