Driving to school this morning, I listened to Olivia Rodrigo’s 2021 hit album “SOUR” that took the world by storm. And one song in particular stood out to me because I finally was able to grasp an understanding of the lyrics. The opening track, “Brutal” made me feel personally attacked with lyrics targeted to teenagers like me.
Things like “I’m so caught up in the news Of who likes me and who hates you” or “I’m not cool, and I’m not smart And I can’t even parallel park”. Remarks that we all thought we felt back then and felt even more real now that we are the same age as her. Olivia put it best when she said “They say these are the golden years But I wish I could disappear, Ego crush is so severe. God, it’s brutal out here.”
I got out of the car and looked around at all these people I’ve known the past few years and wondered, are we all over being seventeen?
So I went on a mission to find out what makes the junior class so sick of seventeen. Why are we all so over this teenage dream? From funny little drama to serious anxieties, here’s what you all said:
One student said that all teenagers “want it to be, like messy.” She felt gossip is always the talk of the halls and we focus way too much on what others are doing. She said that it angers her that “everyone thinks the most interesting thing to talk about is other people.” Creating drama and spreading the word shouldn’t be as important to all of us as it is. She thinks there’s more interesting things to talk about in our day to day.
Another student mentioned that she feels like these ages are the final lap before adulthood and it feels the longest. It’s a drag to wait for eighteen and senior year and having all the freedom in the world. We’re still teenagers, we still have to obey our parents’ rules and live under their roof. And freedom is so close you can taste it but you still have to ask your mom for a ride or ask to extend your curfew.
There was also some conflicting opinions an the idea of living out the “Golden Years”, whereas one student felt “Pressured to make these teenage years the best and have to go out, have to hang out with friends, have to go to parties to be able to look back and feel accomplished” and the other thought, “this time in our lives can’t be lived out to the fullest because every decision made will determine what will happen in the future.” They elaborated on the latter idea saying that high school in general comes with the anxiety of the future and the weight of changing it with everything you do, “even if at the end of the day, high school isn’t that important, it FEELS like it’s everything”.
While we’re all on the lookout for our teenage dream, my advice to everyone is to make sure you’re happy doing whatever it is you’re doing. whether it be working, sports, or just hanging out with your friends, the best thing about being seventeen is finding out who you are, and learning to love every version of yourself ! So don’t be sick of seventeen because I promise it’ll pass, and you can be proud as long as you find what makes you happy.
