From the recording Everything Else Was Noise
I chose “Growin’ Up Is Hard” to open Everything Else Was Noise because it felt like the right doorway into the album.
This song is about more than childhood. It is about the truth that growing up does not happen all at once, and it does not stop just because we get older. Life keeps teaching us, humbling us, breaking us open, and asking us to become a little more honest about who we are and where we have been.
For me, this song carries that feeling of looking back with older eyes. The things that once felt confusing, unfair, or heavy start to make a different kind of sense with time. Not because they were easy, and not because they did not leave marks, but because somehow we made it through them.
At its heart, “Growin’ Up Is Hard” is a simple, honest reflection on becoming yourself the long way around. That felt like the only honest place to begin this album.
— Lane Alan Dumser
Lyrics
Momma used to say it
Like she knew it from the start
Life keeps right on teachin’
Growin’ up is hard
I thought she meant the young years
Learnin’ right from wrong
But time will keep on talkin’
Long after youth is gone
Growin’ up is hard
Ain’t no finish line
You learn it by the mile
You lose it one more time
Still learnin’, still growin’
Still becomin’ who you are
Till the Lord calls your number
Growin’ up is hard
I’ve been young and certain
I’ve been older and proved wrong
Had pride bust up in pieces
Had mercy make me strong
Every scar’s a lesson
Every loss can leave a light
Every road that almost broke me
Taught me how to walk it right
Growin’ up is hard
Ain’t no finish line
You learn it by the mile
You lose it one more time
Still learnin’, still growin’
Still becomin’ who you are
Till the Lord calls your number
Growin’ up is hard