Nearing the end of your senior year? Nostalgia and euphoria flow to your head as you commence the beginning of the rest of your life. The necessary leap into adulthood is approaching as you gather what you’ve learned and leave behind everything you’ve ever known. These songs feel like long car rides with the windows down and your closest friends blaring their music, bickering over who gets to DJ on the way to grab ice cream. The personified strain of youth rushing through your veins as graduation turns the corner faster than the wave that knocked you to your feet as you interlinked arms with your friends and attempted to jump over it. Maybe you have your life planned out, or maybe you need some sun and pizza to ease your mind.

Sticking your hands out of the window, as you remember those hand turkeys you traced around them. Ordering your sushi and experiencing a flashback to when you had to fill out the, “All About Me,” assignments in elementary school. Getting in your car to hangout with friends and comparing it to the pink kiddie Jeep you used to drive around your yard with your cousin. These moments flood your mind as you realize the growth you’ve undergone and the new changes that are about to happen in your life.

The Spins

Mac Miller

The star of all graduation songs. A wave of nostalgia washes over you as you reminisce all of your high school memories that night in your gown. You’ll be skipping through so many Instagram stories and TikToks featuring this graduation anthem while you’re still searching for your cap in the crowd.

Rumors

Ross Lynch, THE DRIVER ERA

Entering high school unaware of how your peers will perceive you for the next four years is what mainstream media trains you to focus on. By senior year, you learn to let go and find what makes you happy–without having to clear your name about any rumors of yourself and the people you associate with.

Bad Habit

Steve Lacy

In high school, you learn how to cultivate friendships and navigate romantic relationships. Sometimes, keeping these feelings to yourself protects you from ruining what you have by not having the same reciprocated. The movies don’t show how complicated love can be, and how wrong timing can poison what could’ve been.

Get Off My Phone

THE DRIVER ERA, Ross Lynch, Rocky

Relationships can be messy and leave a bad taste on your tongue. The days following a breakup, you just want to escape the online comparison magnifying the matching outfits, picturesque dates, and promposals that you’re missing out on. It’s not the end of the world, but this week it definitely feels like it is.

ARE WE STILL FRIENDS?

Tyler, The Creator

Figuring out your compatibility with others as you continuously shed your past and bloom into a new person can leave things unresolved and complex. You outgrew them, but can you still go to their party on Friday? Is third period going to be awkward after you almost dated them but didn’t?

Pink + White

Frank Ocean

Those summer sunsets bring a whole new feeling of freedom now that school is out. The days are longer, so spend them with a towel around your waist and some sandwiches in a cooler.

Run the World!!!

Dayglow

It’s time to gather your friends and draw out your summer plans. Young, naive, and ambitious–we’re the next generation and we’ve got the world in our hands.

RUNNING OUT OF TIME

Tyler, The Creator

Even though it’s been four years, it feels like everything is catching up to you in a matter of seconds. Where are you going for college? Can you healthily maintain that relationship? Who will you stay friends with after high school?

affection

BETWEEN FRIENDS

Dating is complicated. You have that friend who could end up being a little more than just a friend. Risk it?

Salad Days

Mac DeMarco

You don’t feel older, but you know you’re not the same little kid that your mom would drop off at school all those years ago. Older, but not wiser just yet.

As It Was

Harry Styles

Everyone says that high school flies by, but you didn’t believe them until now. You look and act the same, but in between the years you’ve perfected the way you like to do your hair and have learned lessons from people in your past.

FIND YOUR WINGS

Tyler, The Creator (ft. Roy Ayers, Syd, Kali Uchis)

You’re in charge of your own future. What’s destined for you will find its way to you despite the mistakes and pivots you make. Let go of the social construct demanding you to have every aspect of your life figured out, because you’ll make it there eventually and every piece will fall into place with time.

Marlboro Nights

Lonely God

How can you focus on school when you’re living in your prime? Friends, dates, parties, a little harmless fun never hurt anyone, right? The homework will still be there when you get back from your hangout.

Malibu

THE DRIVER ERA, Ross Lynch, Rocky

A beach date is just what your soul needs to refresh it from the mundane everyday tasks. Reverse your fatigue as the wind massages your hair and the frigid waves nip at your knees.

Alright

Supergrass

A classic song about freedom and youth. Making the most of the day by basking in our adolescence, sometimes making immature decisions that we will learn from and look back on in our older days.

A collage featuring a few of the songs featured in the Sounding Off Senior Year playlist.  (ALEX VERDUZCO/ Ethic News image)