Vienna

Winter 2018

“...Vienna waits for you…” It hit me hard, just at the right moment. It was the end of my junior year, and the pressure and expectations seemed to fall on me all at once. I had spread myself too thin; suddenly, all of my goals seemed impossible. During this low point, I stumbled upon the song Vienna, by Billy Joel. It was written for me. The lyrics describe a maturing child who places impossible pressures on herself in an attempt to orchestrate her entire future. Billy mockingly asks the subject why she doubts herself if she appears to be so smart, and why she’s trying to fit an entire lifetime of experience in the few short years prior to adulthood. He wonders when the child will realize that the rest of her life, Vienna, waits for her. Upon hearing the song, I grew defensive. It seemed critical towards a student like myself. I then began to think further about its message: one bad test doesn’t reflect who I am. I don’t have to have the rest of life mapped out in high school; it is okay to be unsure.

While I still push myself academically and extracurricularly to the same degree, Vienna has challenged me to view my responsibilities and ambitions in a different light. I realized that the only person inflicting those impossible standards and pressure upon myself was me. I now understand and accept my imperfections, rather than fearing and attempting to suppress them. I now know that the uncertainty of my future is inevitable, and that the less pressure I mentally impose, the more balanced my life becomes.