So a guy at work and I were discussing the Jimmy Eat World song, "Work." It kind of seems like it's about the prom to me, (and he agrees) but he told me that in the video, they kind of go with the title, "work," with all these high school kids saying what they want to be when they grow up. Anyway, he told me he thinks it might end up being the "high school graduation song" this year.

I was like, "Wha?" and he's like, "Well, you know how every year there's this sentimental song that's about leaving, or good advice for the future or something?" And it clicked: there WAS a graduation song the year I graduated. The cleverly titled, "Graduation Song," by Vitamin C. I'd never really thought of it as being a multiple year trend, because most graduation songs don't come right out and call themselves "Graduation Song." But he's like, "No, the year I graduated, it was totally "Everyone's Free To Wear Sunscreen. And the year before that, it was "Good Riddance" by Greenday, and I was totally disappointed to get stupid lame Everybody's Free To Wear Sunscreen, when the year previous got the cool Greenday song." And I totally agreed. Hell, I think Graduation Song's worse than Sunscreen, because you can just TELL whoever wrote Graduation Song made it SOLEY to cash in on this trend and people's feelings of sentimentality. Whereas Baz Luhrman (the person who put Sunscreen, originally a commencement speech by some lady, to music), obviously does fine without releasing music, and made it sheerly because he wanted to, as far as I can tell. But yeah, I admit I get a little misty whenever anyone resurrects Graduation Song, despite myself.

So apparently he does a lot of thinking about this, because he told me that the year preceeding the Greenday song was Bittersweet Symphony, by the Verve. Which we both agreed is an awesome song, that we also wished we'd had instead of Graduation Song/Sunscreen. And he said he thought the one after Graduation Song was "Heres to the Night" by Eve 6. Which, honestly, I love Eve 6 in general, but despise the song. I don't know his thoughts on it, as our conversation was disrupted just then. But anyway, now I'm really curious about this trend. How long has it been happening? Does it still happen? What've the other songs been? So I'm asking for people to comment, or correct, the timeline I've made just now in my spare dorky time:

1997 -- Bittersweet Symphony -- The Verve
1998 -- Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) -- Greenday
1999 -- Everybody's Free To Wear Sunscreen -- Baz Luhrman
2000 -- Graduation Song -- Vitamin C
2001 -- Here's To the Night -- Eve 6

As we go on
we remember
all the times we
shared together *sniff* *sniff*

--"Graduation Song," Vitamin C