We Are All Still Growing Up

No one likes being told what to do. Macklemore’s “Growing Up,” though, from the album This Unruly Mess I’ve Made is effectively a list of to-dos, dedicated to Macklemore’s daughter, who was a newborn baby at the time. Here are the lyrics.

The speaker in this song (poem) could be any new parent. The speaker is nervous about being a parent, and trying to impart some new knowledge on their baby. In the same way that the baby will grow up, the speaker, the parent, is still growing and learning as a person. Macklemore says, “I’m still tryna figure out who I am / I don’t wanna mess this up or do this wrong,” as a way of showing how as a dad, he will now grow in new ways as well. As this is in essence advice for a child, that is the audience of the poem. Lines such as, “I won't spoil you, you can trust that / For your sweet sixteen, you get a bus pass,” show how the speaker is looking to the future and giving their own child, a baby, advice on how to live to the fullest in their child and teenage years. So, by default, the occasion for this song (poem) is the birth of the speaker’s child, because now the speaker has a reason to create this list of “reminders” to pass on to their child.

The message of this song is, I think, to always live life fully in the present. The speaker is telling their child of experiences they should have to make their childhood better and more enjoyable. For example, with great imagery, Macklemore writes, “If it snows, go outside, build a jump, get some help / Get a sled, thrash the hill with your friends, ‘til it melts.” These lines create a picture in the reader’s (or listener’s) head of a really lively, happy time, and maybe when they also have experienced happiness like that. Macklemore also creates multidimensional language by using alliteration: “Listen to your teachers, but cheat in calculus / Tell the truth, regardless of the consequence.” The syntax of these lines - the short, to the point phrases, coupled with the alliteration, of “c” and “t” make them stick out to the reader/listener and improve the song overall.

The second prong of the meaning to this song is that even when we think we are adults, and in control, life can be unexpected, so we must go along with it and learn as we go. On the surface, this song is about how the speaker’s child with grow up; I also think it is about how now the speaker is also growing up, though. At the end of the refrain are the lines, “Times are changing, I know / But who am I if I’m the person you become / If I’m still growing up, up, up, up / I’m still growing up, up, up, up / I’m still growing up.” In these couple lines of great language through repetition the speaker has a slight identity crisis. I think these lines are the most meaningful lines in the whole song though, because the speaker goes from questioning if he is still growing up, to fully acknowledging that he is, and I think through that, accepts it. Growing up is a lifelong process, and it is in these final lines that the speaker realizes that.