Ten years ago? Yes, dear reader, we are old. We can already sense the grey hairs sneaking onto our scalps and we’ve woken up with a sore back more times than we’d like. It’s only a matter of time until we’re all wearing white New Balance shoes and watching the 6 p.m. weather report. But at the old age of 19 years and 11 months, I must say it’s nice to think about how it was back in the day. If we hop into a time machine for a moment and head back to late 2011, when “Call Me Maybe” came out, or 2012, when it became a smash hit, we’d find a young gentleman – me – just entering his “classic rock is the only good type of music; all rap and pop sucks” phase. If a song wasn’t by Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, Santana or someone similar, it was earning the “trash” stamp, no doubt about it. 

At the time, I found myself to be quite the enlightened individual. I wasn’t a radio sheep like the rest: I only listened to real music. How could anything but classic rock be considered real music? Well, in my older and wiser years, it seems that I’ve changed into what the younger me looked down on. The “classic rock is the only real music” philosophy is gone. I love rap, I love pop, and most relevantly, I love Carly Rae Jepsen. I’m a proud owner of an Emotion CD, and I can’t help but sing along to “Call Me Maybe” whenever it plays from my liked songs on Spotify. 

I’m glad that I came around. The song’s fun, catchy and most importantly, it reminds me of everything that I loved about the early 2010s: all the movies, video games, books and personal moments. Back in the day, I was annoyed by all my cousins singing along and by all the YouTube videos of people dancing to it, but now those memories never fail to make me smile. 

A part of me thinks that I secretly liked the song when I was younger. My immature idea of maturity simply suppressed my true thoughts, but I suppose I can’t judge myself for that — obviously, we all grow. All I hope now is that when I’m actually old and thrown deep into the ocean of New York Times crossword puzzles and hard candies, I’ll still love “Call Me Maybe” just as much as I love it now. Maybe I’ll have lost my hearing by then — perhaps from listening to “Call Me Maybe” too much — but even the memory of the chorus should make me smile. 

As a side note, I highly suggest reading Carly’s letter about the song. It’s a cool read. Might as well take a look at the dedicated website too.