For me, being 22 has been my favorite year of my life. I like all the possibilities of how you’re still learning, but you know enough. You still know nothing, but you know that you know nothing. You’re old enough to start planning your life, but you’re young enough to know there are so many unanswered questions. That brings about a carefree feeling that is sort of based on in-decision and fear and at the same time letting loose. Being 22 has taught me so much.

Taylor also told Ryan Seacrest:

I wrote that about my friends, like finally I’ve got this amazing group of girlfriends and we tell each other everything, we’re together all the time. And I think that was kind of the marker of me being 22, like having all these friends and there’s all these question marks in your life, but the one thing that you have is that you have each other.

“22” is certified 3x Platinum by the RIAA.

In addition to “it feels like a perfect night” originally being “it seems like a perfect night,” a photo has surfaced of the page on which Taylor wrote the song, with these different lyrics written:

Sometimes it hits me
We’re moving quickly
Toward something hazy
A future I can’t see
Let’s break the old rules
While we’re still 22
You look like bad news
I gotta have you

These lyrics were likely part of the original bridge, since the final two lyrics carried over into the studio version.