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I Should Have Listened When Billy Joel Told Me to “Slow Down”
Age Eighteen
I’m watching 13 Going on 30 for approximately the 47th time and I have absolutely no shame because Mark Ruffalo and Jennifer Garner are precious humans that are impossible not to love and root for.
I’m on the verge of graduating high school and I’m feeling a burning itch to grow up, zoom through college, and get on with “real” life, so the film is perhaps more relatable than it ever was to me at thirteen.
You know how you notice something new each time you rewatch a film?
During that particular viewing, it was a song on the soundtrack (which, even if you hate romantic comedies, is worth listening to).
It plays during the turning point in the movie when Garner’s Jenna realizes that adulting actually really sucks sometimes and that she doesn’t like the person she has become:
“Slow down, you crazy child
You’re so ambitious for a juvenile
But then if you’re so smart, then tell me
Why are you still so afraid?
Where’s the fire, what’s the hurry about?
You’d better cool it off before you burn it out
You’ve got so much to do
And only so many hours in a day
But you know that when the truth is told
That you can get what you want or you get old
You’re gonna kick off before you even
Get halfway through
When will you realize, Vienna waits for you
Slow down, you’re doing fine
You can’t be everything you want to be
Before your time…”
“Vienna” by Billy Joel was what the kids these days would call a “callout post.” It said everything I needed to hear but didn’t want to. At eighteen, I was “smart” (I was one of my high school’s valedictorians, a title which really got me nowhere), and I was afraid. I was afraid that I had already missed my chance to become someone I would be proud to be.
