'Inspired by 7 years by Lukas Graham"

PART 1 - “Once I was seven years old, my mama told me: go make yourself some friends or you'll be lonely.”

Mamma always said to me that I was like the grass. Untidy and unkempt.

She stopped saying it as I got older and better at life, but I never really thought about it before that day.

I was 7 and playing with my monster trucks by myself. I wasn't very popular in school but I didn't care because I had my best friend, Matt who always came to play with me.

But that day, he didn't.

Mamma had called me in for supper. I remember dragging my feet and hanging my head while walking to the table.

I finally sat down at the table and my Mamma looked me dead in the eye

She told me, "Lukas, you are gonna go make yourself some friends at school tomorrow. You don't want to end up lonely like me."

I was confused -- until she broke the news to me.

Matt was moving away.

At 7 years old, I didn't know hearts could break so easily.

Mamma kept pushing me to make friends even though I wasn't very good at it. But eventually, I did. A couple stuck. For a lot longer than I thought they would.

PART 2 - “Once I was eleven years old, my daddy told me: go get yourself a wife or you'll be lonely.”

Daddy told me that day, "Lukas, go find yourself a wife or you'll be lonely."

He was standing in the kitchen drinking his coffee out of a blue mug that said some dumb thing.

I just nodded like I understood.

I didn't though. I never stopped thinking about what he told me though. I was only 11. How was I supposed to find a wife?

I didn't start looking for a wife. Obviously. However, I started thinking about Marie.

She could outrun every boy in the gym every time. She didn't let anyone forget either. She had pretty brown hair that was always in a braid.

And she was very pretty.

I called her Rillo even though she told me not to. I liked seeing her annoyed with me. One time I called her that she pushed me hard into a bush. I remember getting up, grinning like an idiot.

PART 3 - “Soon I'll be 20 years old, my story got told…”

My story got told to college classmates who barely knew me, professors who thought I’d “make it,” and people back home who still called me the music kid.

They’d ask about Marie, too.

“Are you guys getting married soon?”

“You’ve been together since forever, right?”

I’d just laugh it off and say, “Ask her.”

Marie would roll her eyes and say, “Let me survive finals first.”

We never talked about the future like it was some big dramatic thing. We were still figuring out what groceries to buy and how to unclog sinks. Marriage felt like something far away. Not because I didn’t want it—just because life was already enough to keep up with.

But the questions kept coming. About jobs, music, children, education. I knew it would all work out in the end.

Until one day, I was sitting alone in my car, parked outside the old house I grew up in. The lawn was overgrown. The mailbox was bent. Daddy’s garden had long stopped blooming. I stopped in my car to look at the house I had grown up in.

Daddy died a couple of years ago.

Heart attack.

I stopped writing songs but I still played my guitar.

Marie always helped the pain.

We made time for each other when we could.

My friends were still around. We meet up almost everywhere.

I reconnected with Matt in college. Just briefly. We talked in a coffee shop for a couple minutes then went on with our lives.

I knew Mamma and Daddy would be proud. I always thought about what they said when I was just a boy. And I had done it.

PART 4 - “Soon I’ll be sixty years old, will I think the world is cold, or will I have a lot of children who can warm me?”

Mamma died a year ago.

I hadn’t touched my guitar in months.

Marie said I should write again. Said it might help.

But every time I tried, the words came out empty.

The world had never felt colder.

That’s when I realized something had to end.

Not grief. Not love.

But this version of me—the one who kept living like he was still twenty, still waiting for something to start.

I was getting older. We both were.

And maybe it was time I let go of the stories I thought I’d write, and start living the ones I still could.

I had children and grandchildren. My two beautiful daughters were starting their own lives now. They were both married. My oldest has two sons and my youngest is going to give birth to her first daughter soon.

Time was flying. I knew though even as I got older that I would have people to brighten me. Marie, my children, and their children.

But I will always remember what brought me here. Mamma and Daddy always pushed me harder. I now had a beautiful life. I just wish they were here to see.

I finally picked up a pen and wrote one more song. Because Marie said it would really help me.

It did help me. It made me remember my life. I can always think back now and remember when I was once 7 years old.