I always tell my kids not to peak too early, but Paisley does it better in “The Letter”:
If I could write a letter to me
and send it back in time to myself at seventeen
first I’d prove it’s me by sayin’
look under your bed, there’s a Skoal can and a Playboy
no one else would know you hid
and then I’d say I know it’s tough
when you break up after 7 months
and yeah I know you really liked her
. . . .
and I’d end by sayin’ have no fear
these are nowhere near
the best years of your life.
(Each decade I push back the appropriate peak decade.)
I read the lyrics. It is cute, but teenagers won’t listen to their adult selves if they could communicate with them. It is fundamental to their condition.
BTW: I took a typing class in high school. 45 years later I am still a two finger typist.
Ruefully, I agree. If we choose to grow up, I think we’re more or less doomed to individually being “sadder but wiser.”
Still, I think Paisley, a young father,captures just what we want to teach our kids…that every year is better, that travails truly are temporary, and that life sometimes works out pretty well in the end if one hews to honor and effort.