A reminder that maybe none of us have ever had an original experience
Do you ever feel like you’re going through something no one has ever experienced? Like somehow, out of the billions of people in this world, you are the only person who has felt this exact way? Chances are, Olivia Rodrigo has found a way to put a similar feeling into words.
Rodrigo has a way of writing about love so heartbreakingly that even if you’ve never experienced romantic love, you somehow find a way to convince yourself that you have. Suddenly, you’re heartbroken over a relationship that never existed. But heartbreak is only one part of what makes her music feel so personal. She writes about her own self-worth, insecurities, jealousy, loneliness and everything in between.
Maybe that’s what makes her music so relatable: her lyrics are incredibly personal to her, yet somehow they don’t feel like they belong only to her. Sometimes I listen to an Olivia Rodrigo song to understand exactly what she’s feeling, even if I’ve never experienced what she’s been through. Other times, she puts a feeling I’ve had into words better than I ever could, and suddenly I’m wondering if Olivia Rodrigo somehow got inside my head.
“What’s Wrong With Me” is one of those songs. When Rodrigo admits “I’m not feeling like myself,” it sounds so simple, but it describes a sensation that can be surprisingly hard to explain. Sometimes there isn’t a reason to be sad; nothing bad has happened, but you just feel empty. And not knowing why you feel that way can make you feel even more insane.
This kind of feeling becomes harder to recognize in college because life doesn’t just stop while you’re in a funk. You still have class in the morning and assignments due at 11:59 p.m. You still decide to go out with your friends and do all the things you normally do. Eventually, you learn to go about your day-to-day without ever really feeling like yourself. You learn to live with this weird, unexplainable emptiness until it starts to feel oddly normal.
Then Olivia Rodrigo writes a song about it, and suddenly I’m reminded that maybe the feelings I thought were impossible to explain were never only mine.
If feeling empty isn’t an original experience, apparently neither is completely losing all common sense when you like someone. “Love is Embarrassing” captures a completely different feeling, but one that somehow feels just as familiar. Love and crushes can suddenly turn you into a version of yourself you barely recognize. You overanalyze their texts, stalk every social media page they have, tell your friends about an interaction that lasted about 20 seconds and somehow convince yourself that even the smallest amount of attention means something much more. The worst part is you know that you’re being a little crazy. You can give the best relationship advice but the second it comes to your own love life, none of it seems relevant. You know you shouldn’t be checking your phone every three seconds. You know that your friends are probably tired of hearing the same story again and again. But here we are envisioning the next interaction with this person.
This is what makes “Love is Embarrassing” so relatable. The lyrics aren’t trying to make it seem like having a crush is the best thing in the world. Instead, Rodrigo admits the part we don’t always want to admit to ourselves: sometimes, having feelings for someone is just really embarrassing.
So, maybe none of us have ever had an original experience. Maybe the feeling you thought was impossible to explain has already been felt by someone else and if you’re lucky, Olivia Rodrigo has somehow put it into words. Something is comforting in hearing a song and realizing that the feelings you thought no one could understand aren’t as isolating as they once seemed. From feeling empty for no reason, to embarrassing yourself because you have been so consumed by another person, to experiencing a heartbreak that you never even had, somehow Rodrigo finds the perfect words to make these feelings seem so familiar.
And yes, maybe Olivia Rodrigo doesn’t actually know exactly how we all feel. But after listening to her music, it’s hard to believe she doesn’t.