A part of growing up involves recognizing I’m no longer the youngest person in the room. I’m reminded of this daily when I am around the youth of the world, most notably my students. Although – ironically enough I’m probably one of the youngest teachers at Kennedy High School, which is full of aging dinosaurs. But I do tell the students daily I am 75 years old. Pretty sure less students believe me than the guillible middle schoolers did.
Growing up also means recognizing that you will end up losing contact with many people throughout your life. Because people simply get busy and move on. When I was a teenager, one of the songs that mostly resonated with me was Blink 182’s Dammit. Most notably the lyrics below:
And it’s happened once again
I’ll turn to a friend
Someone that understands
And sees through the master plan
But everybody’s gone
And I’ve been here for too long
To face this on my own
Well, I guess this is growing up
Though the song is very obviously about a breakup, it was certainly appealing in my teenage emo phase and later future low moments. And really – it was some of the greatest friends that ultimately got me through some of the darkest moments of my life and inspired me to move on, especially from tragic breakups. But at the end of the day I had to face those moments of sadness on my own.
Which made all the more crazy that when I was randomly listening to Hilary Duff’s new album, the song “Growing Up” came up – which interpolates Blink 182’s Dammit. Not sure how much of a intersection there is between Blink 182 and Hilary Duff listeners, but the melody was all too similar.
And it’ll happen once again
I’ll turn to you, friend
‘Cause I know you’ll understand
And you will until the end
And when everybody’s gone
They got busy and moved on
We’ll face it on our own
And I guess this is growing up
Her song is more in the context of a friendship. It particularly resonates me with me due to the amount of friends that have gotten me through such dark days of my past. And it also makes me a bit sad, because a lot of them have gotten busy and moved on with their lives. But they will forever remain a vital part of my memory for helping me get to where I am today. Here’s hoping I can reconnect with all of those friends soon.
