Playlist: Growing Pains

With another semester ending and graduation drawing near, students may feel melancholy as they anticipate inevitable endings. As you’re laying in bed contemplating your next chapter, let the sounds of Lorde and Fleetwood Mac hold your hand as you begin a new chapter in life.

Written by Jencie Tomasek

Illustrated by Nora Sharaf

Growing up often feels like a heartache throughout your body, slithering head-to-toe and keeping warm at your core. While you might not always be able to pinpoint where the pain stems from, it often includes the fear of leaving the familiar behind as you come of age, trading school, friends, routines for steady jobs, co-workers, and more routines.

It’s a cyclical story, realizing you’re aging (Birdy’s “Growing Pains”), navigating life alone (Taylor Swift’s “You’re On Your Own, Kid”),  and accepting the inevitable (Fleetwood Mac’s “Landslide”). It’s feeling universal fear (Lorde’s “Ribs”) and realizing you don’t have to rush growing up (Billy Joel’s “Vienna”). Growing pains are marked by periods of being your own friend while also leaning on the ones who haven’t gone away. As you leave opportunities behind to seek new endeavors, find comfort in the words of artists who equally feel what we think we are alone in feeling. All-too-relatable lyrics are delivered behind consistent rhythms with hopeful undertones.

Move through this playlist and use it as a balm to soothe your heart. Yes, you might be experiencing growing pains, but growing is still growing. It’s time to embrace the unknown of the future. Put in your headphones and release the breath you’ve been holding — you’re going to be okay.