By Silvana Smith | Alumni Contributor
So you’re 22. Although not as nearly hyped up as much as 21, a lot of shit goes down when you’re 22. Usually, this is the year people graduate college, move out, get their first grown up job, and enter the proverbial “real world.” Whether 22 for you follows this common trajectory or not, it is a year that usually brings a lot of freedom, uncertainty, and change. Basically, no matter where you are in life, there’s a lot of growing up to do.
Now the real question: is it all it’s hyped up to be? After Taylor Swift’s iconic single by the very name, there was honestly a few expectations I had entering the age 22. It was an age that almost felt fictional when I was little. Even in high school, I still had no idea what I would be like at that age. Would I be fun and carefree like Taylor? Would I be stressed out? Would my life look like how I’d imagined it?
Well the answer is no.
In reality, 22 has left me feeling a lot more complicated and angsty than the “miserable and magical” party Taylor Swift’s song led me to believe, and there isn’t as much dancing around my kitchen with my friends or baking while wearing kitten ear headbands as I would like. Oh, you’re feeling 22, Taylor? What does that even mean?!
So to find out, I decided to look to other musicians for a new perspective on 22. Although there isn’t a plethora of songs that mention the age, I have found a good handful that capture the less glamorous, but maybe more relatable side of 22.
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Hello Cold World _ Paramore
“22 was like the worst idea I have ever had.” Couldn’t have said it better myself, Hayley. While there are probably people out there whose lives are going perfectly and exactly how they imagined 22 to be, most are not. This song is about when the real world hits you over the side of your head and turns your life upside down. In the words of the lead singer herself, “It’s also just about realizing that the world is sometimes crap.”
The truth is the world is crap. Yes it’ll knock you down to your knees, but your life’s not gonna turn out the way you want unless you go out and fight for it. “We can hope and we can pray that everything will work out fine
But you can't just stay down on your knees, the revolution is outside”
Without being cynical, this pop punk song takes an honest look at life at 22. Unless you’re one of the lucky ones, life is hard. But hey, “you say you’re really hurting, at least you’re feeling something.” As someone who’s been through hell and taken more than a few low blows from the universe, lyrics like “I’ll just make the best of everything I’ll never have” make me wanna sing along the loudest. Things don’t work out, and that’s okay. We’re all going through the same shit anyway. “It’s not the way you plan it, it’s how you make it happen.”
22 _ Lily Allen
Although this is really just a song about being 29, this song is everything I’m currently afraid of. All the decisions I make now will have lasting effects on my life, at least for the foreseeable future. Although I know 22 is still quite young, having to make a lot of grown-up decisions for the first time (like where to live, what job to get, when to open that Roth IRA) reminds me that very soon I won’t be young anymore. Before you know it, I won’t be planning for my future because I’ll be living it. And I don’t want to screw it up. I don’t want to waste my youth away and wake up 29, regretting how I spent my twenties.
Moral of the song is: your life doesn’t stop once you turn 30, and youth isn’t everything. Life is long, and it doesn’t have to be stagnant once you settle down and get an office job. Live your life how you want, not according to arbitrary, stereotypical markers of successful, set to some meaningless timeline. Does knowing this make me feel any better? No. But the song is really good.
Emily _ Catfish and the Bottlemen
At 22, this is a new stage of adulthood where anything can happen. You could go anywhere. Get a new job, move to a new city, lose your way, find a new love. Or in this case, you could write two tunes that suddenly skyrocket your band to fame, allowing you to tour all over the world. It’s exciting and fulfilling, but when the world moves fast, sometimes things get left behind. Or people get left behind. Or specifically a girl named Emily.
When your world starts changing fast, sometimes you’ve left your old life behind before you even realize it. Whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing, it’s sure to surprise you.
Set to classically catchy alt-rock guitar riffs, at 2 minutes and 18 seconds long Emily is a short but memorable song that (although it seemingly doesn’t have a bridge) is definitely worth a listen.
20 Something _ Alexander 23
“I’m 20 something going on 20 something else
And I’m years beyond my wise, I’m falling apart”
Even though things can seem to slow down after graduation, it can still feel too fast.
Released at the end of October, “20 Something”, off of his debut album I’m Sorry I Love You, is the latest from the bedroom pop movement. Alexander 23, who rumor has it is actually 24, has managed to capture what it’s like to feel left behind by everyone else. Even when it’s not true, post-grad can feel like everyone else has moved on to the next stage in life while you’re still figuring things out. Things can move so quickly that sometimes you just want to pause for a sec to catch your breath and live in the present, if only for a moment.
22 _ Jeff Pianki
“It's human nature to lie and steal
correct the way we try to feel
but I've realized what isn't real
so I take it out on my driving wheel”
This is a time in your life where the choices you make have a lot at stake. Your patterns are breaking and you create a new life for yourself all on your own, which brings with it the good and the bad. Growing up is hard to do, but making sure you become a person you’re proud to be can be scary. Scary enough to try to change.
These melancholic lyrics are perfectly accompanied by the soft guitar strummings of Jeff Pianki. Although this song is only available on bandcamp, you can find his more recent releases on Spotify.
Leaves That Are Green _ Simon & Garfunkel
“I was 21 years when I wrote this song. I’m 22 now but I won’t be for long.”
A song about growing older, growing apart, and moving on. “Hello, goodbye, that’s all there is.” At 22, or any age filled with changes and turbulence, it can be overwhelming how quickly time passes, how quickly parts of your life that used to mean so much to you seem to fade away. Although being 22 in the 1960’s was probably very different from what it’s like today, you can always count on Simon & Garfunkel to transcend space and time with music that makes you feel nostalgic.
Twenty Two _ Wakey!Wakey!
“For me it started when I turned twenty-two
You count your blessings, but you're still black and blue
You should go home before your money's all gone”
With all the freedom that 22 can bring, it means that failure isn’t too far behind. For many, 22 means being broke, getting rejected from jobs and romantic crushes alike, and failing at adulthood in general. This age is a time to fight for the life you want but also learning when it’s time to call it quits and go home before you completely hit rock bottom. It sucks, and not everybody has a home to go back to, but it comforts me to know that this is the time to fail. This is the time to try something new and burn it to the ground. When’s a better time to rebuild your whole life than 22?
Twenty Two and Some Change _ Stephen Day
“When you get to a certain age, you miss what you could’ve had,
but you don’t really want it back.”
Being 22 and a post-grad can be terrifying for someone who has spent the last 87% of their life calling themself a student. You can look back and be satisfied with how you’ve spent your years or you can look back and feel regret for the opportunities you passed up or the things you never got to do. But if you’re like me, mostly you look back and are just so glad it’s over. Now, leaving the structure of student life behind, you simply “hope that you’re on track, for twenty two and some change.”
While this groovy, acoustic pop song captures this feeling well, Day trades gloomier tunes for a soft but catchy rhythm. The artist himself captured the meaning best in an interview with Parade Magazine. “I wrote the song just a few weeks before my 23rd birthday. I had just graduated and the weight of the ‘real world’ was keeping me up at night,”
“The song to me is a look inside a mind that wants to know how to be completely present and in the moment, but gets wrapped up in the ‘how'. Also… I need to call my momma more!”
20 Something _ SZA
Possibly my favorite song on this entire playlist, SZA’s final track off of her Grammy-nominated album Ctrl is one of the most heartbreaking songs about your twenties I have ever heard.
“Ain’t got nothing, running from love, only know fear // that’s me miss 20 Somehing”
One of her most vulnerable tracks, the song is about feeling stuck, not having your life together, and the growing pains of getting older. Your twenties bring with them a lot of emotional trials and tribulations, and 22 is just the beginning. Honestly, sometimes your twenties are hard to survive.
“God Bless these 20 somethings” We need it.
22 _ Taylor Swift
While I don’t believe Taylor Swift’s hit single from 2013 perfectly encapsulates how I feel about being 22, on those nights when all I wanna do is dance and forget about what it means to act my age, this song is a pretty good bop to dance to.
Fuck it, “let’s ditch the whole scene.”
<3
Listen to the full playlist on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4gruQkmZkk4OOxin7yQYu7?si=C5PYxfmETs21-7-m8byJdQ