The day that I grow up, graduate, and in my mind truly enter the real world gets closer and closer. As I’ve grown up I feel like I’ve gained a new level of consciousness about the fact that things will never go back to as they were. Sometimes I miss the times where my biggest problem was who got the bigger chocolate bar, or the times where I could stay up as late as possible just playing video games with zero consequence (as long as I wasn’t caught). If I’m being honest, as a child I had a subconscious notion of immortality; nothing was going to stop me. I miss that shallow, unproblematic perspective on life. But then I remember that life as an adult holds so many positives its hard not to look forwards, even if you are leaving good times behind. That is what “Leaving New York” is all about. 

The tone of this song is about moving on. In the first verse Michael Stipe seems to address his future self, saying “I looked ahead, I’m sure I saw you there, You don’t need me to tell you now that nothing can compare”(0:30). This use of allusion indicates that Stipe was looking forwards to the future. Then the next lines are “you might have laughed if I told you, you might have hidden a frown, you might have succeeded in changing me”(0:52). Now Stipe seems to be addressing his past self, almost saying “look at who I’ve become.” The back end of the chorus addresses the difficulty of growing up and moving on: “It’s easier to leave than to be left behind… Leaving New York never easy.”(1:11) 

The second verse is about that fear of growing up. Stipe personifies loneliness in the second line by saying “…it wears me out, it lies in wait”(1:42). He then continues to say “memory fuses and shatters like glass, mercurial future, forget the past”(2:03). This comparison to glass gives the impression that the future is not determined, it’s fragile. Recently, I’ve begun to realize that life can end incredibly quickly. One second you’re alive, the next you’re not. This idea scares me of course, but it reminds me not to take anything for granted, which is something I try to remind myself as much as possible.