Vienna
April 19, 2024
Writer: Lily Lev
Editor: Chloe Cardello
“Slow down you’re doing fine
You can’t be everything you want to be before your time”
My friend has those two lines by Billy Joel framed and hung above her bed at school as a gentle reminder to take a step back. She, myself, and assumingly most of the people reading this, feel such immense pressure to do things when we are young, whether it be getting the top internship, traveling to the most places, or adding countless majors and minors to our degree. But as Billy Joel reminds us in this song, “Vienna waits for you.”
Joel was inspired to write this piece while visiting his dad who was living in Vienna. On the trip, he was struck by the number of older people who were still working. In America, we tend to devalue people as they age and deem them incapable–putting them in nursing homes or encouraging retirement. But in other places, that’s not the case; aging is desirable. It portrays a sense of maturity, knowledge, and purpose. It comes with freedom and excitement. In an interview, Joel explained that “you don’t have to squeeze your whole life into your 20s and 30s trying to make it... you have your whole life” (Walthall, 2023).
In kindergarten, I remember looking up in awe at the 5th-grade ‘patrols’ on my bus, thinking how cool it was to have power and be in charge. In 5th grade, I just wanted to be in middle school, to have a locker, and to choose who to sit with at lunch. In middle school, I thought that high school was a dream; I wanted it to be just like the movies. In high school, everyone was already preparing for college, as if the four years we were in were simply a gateway to “the best four years of your life.” And now in college, I find myself glamorizing post-grad life and living in an apartment in a big city. But the reality is that no matter how much time I spend thinking about the future, it won’t change the speed of the present. And that’s a wonderful thing.
The present is the only time we can experience joy, the only time we can have raw emotion, the only time we get to truly live. Because you can’t control the future or go back to the past.
As I’ve been attempting to channel this message recently, I am trying to incorporate small moments into my day-to-day life that help me stay grounded. On Saturday, my friends and I took the bus to the gym to shoot baskets and swim laps, a day that mini-Lily would have adored. I hadn’t played basketball in two years (after being on a team K-12) and am not a frequent swimmer. But even the short escape to North campus–interjected with an activity that made the younger me so content–was the perfect reminder to focus on the present.
We have so much time in life, and yet we rarely stop to appreciate where we are now. I’m challenging myself–and anyone reading this–to check in with yourself. How can you incorporate Billy Joel’s words into your days? Not everything needs to be figured out, and not everything needs to be done now. We have our whole lives to live.
Walthall, C. (2023, November 28). Behind the meaning of the Carpe Diem song “Vienna” by Billy Joel. American Songwriter. https://americansongwriter.com/meaning-vienna-billy-joel-song-lyrics/
