Ariana Grande’s exponential success continues on her latest album, thank u, next. The album includes songs like “7 rings” and the eponymous “thank u, next,” along with 10 others. Though the album is dancy and fun to listen to, it addresses an issue everyone deals with at some point: being alone.
Grande doesn’t regard being alone as a bad thing like we usually do in life. The type of being alone that she is focusing on is a self-solitude. On “thank u, next,” she sings about how she is learning to focus on herself and can’t see herself being with anyone else in the near future, which she is more than happy about. Why is that?
Because learning how to be alone is hard.
While being single is fun and free, most singles will sense a twinge of exclusion when they see a couple walking down the street hand in hand or just kicking it around campus. Having a partner means having an immediate go-to — someone you can count on, someone who will listen to your problems (no matter how big or how small), someone who knows you as well as you know yourself.
But thank u, next is about being your own go-to. Grande has been under a microscope of sorts in the public eye when it comes to her relationships. It’s no secret that she found herself jumping from one serious relationship immediately into an engagement with a whole lot of people paying attention to her. Like many of us do, she thought she needed someone else to love her, but what we see in her music is that the most important thing for people to do especially in young adulthood is to love yourself.
This whole concept of “loving yourself” may cause some to roll their eyes. It seems kind of silly. Our self-love is something that we look over and disregard as being a necessary part of our lives. We are more focused on trying to get other people to love us first, then using their love as a means of validation. We consequently get our own love for ourselves from other people. This can leave us without any feeling of loving or even liking ourselves if we get out of a relationship and is why it is so important to learn to love ourselves before we love others. It’s a cliché, but it’s true. We have to stop looking for unconditional love from others and start looking for it from ourselves.
So go for a walk alone and pop in some earbuds to listen to thank u, next. What you gain may be more than some pop tunes stuck in your head.
Mikayla Rochelle is a freshman studying journalism at Ohio University. Please note that the views and opinions of the columnists do not reflect those of The Post. What do you think of thank u, next and its message? Tell Mikayla by tweeting her at @mikayla_roch.
