There’s something no one really tells you when you’re a teenager: that it’s possible to feel like your world is ending over something as simple as a math test, a look from a friend, or a moment of silence that feels way too loud. Olivia Rodrigo’s lyric “They all say that it gets better, it gets better, but what if I don’t?” from her song teenage dream doesn’t just echo teenage angst. It pierces it. It brought me back to nights spent staring at the ceiling, wondering if the version of myself I was supposed to become was even real. Back then, adults insisted things would get easier with time. They said the pressure, insecurity, and self-doubt would fade. But some nights, I couldn’t imagine life outside that fog. What if I wasn’t just going through a phase? What if I was the one who wouldn’t outgrow the anxiety? Rodrigo’s lyric struck me because it voiced the fear I didn’t know how to say out loud. That maybe I was the exception. That maybe I’d never change. Teenage years often feel like a paradox. You’re expected to grow, to be resilient, to take on more responsibility, yet you’re still figuring out who you are. I did everything I thought I was supposed to do. I smiled in the halls, I kept my grades up, I joined the right clubs. On the outside, I looked like I was thriving. Inside, I was constantly second-guessing myself, wondering if my friends actually liked me, or if everyone else had some secret manual for growing up that I had missed. I felt a sense of imposter syndrome of everyone else as their achievements and perfections in their oh so perfect life. Now, as a college student looking back, I’ve realized that the fear doesn’t disappear overnight. You don’t graduate high school and instantly feel whole. But what’s changed is how I see that fear. It’s not a flaw. It’s part of the process. Rodrigo’s lyric doesn’t offer a solution. That’s what makes it so honest. It holds space for the possibility that not everyone feels better right away. And in that space, there’s validation. I still carry pieces of that doubt with me. But I also carry the understanding that it’s okay not to have everything figured out. That lyric captured what it felt like to be a teenager in a moment of quiet panic. And now, it reminds me how far I’ve come, even if I’m still growing.