Threw a mattress on the floor and made a home out of a dorm room
She got a credit card in her name to buy what she couldn't afford to
And now she's eighteen, she can barely eat and barely drive
Mind racing, what's the meaning of being alive?

I don't blame her for not doing anything she was supposed to
So much for the young and free
I know that you feel confused
I'm sorry that it hurt so much

Growing up is hard to do
You'll always be a part of me
Swear I'll take better care of you
I'm sorry that it hurt so much

Growing up is hard to do, hard to do
Rubbing drugs into your gums to prove to your friends
That you're a good time 'til you're crying in the stairwell
Holding your hair back, wishing you had kept your body to yourself

Can't forget the way it felt
So much for the young and free
I know that you feel confused
I'm sorry that it hurt so much

Growing up is hard to do
You'll always be a part of me
Swear I'll take better care of you
I'm sorry that it hurt so much

Growing up is hard to do, hard to do
You drank yourself dizzy
Held in all your secrets
Took off running naked with a handle in your arms

Woke up in a fever
Sweating out your bad decisions
Couldn't even see straight, but you still got in the car
You tried to be the cool girl

You know the way that boys are
You just wanna talk but it's your body that he counts
It's snowing up in Amherst
You don't feel a damn thing

Everything's a mess when you got nothing figured out
You'll always be a part of me
Swear I'll take better care of you
I'm sorry that it hurt so much

Growing up is hard