“I want to live in a world where all your exes are dead…”

Julia Michaels and the “wasted time” view of ex-relationships.

Photo by Djim Loic on Unsplash

I am friends with almost all of my exes — granted now, I am just 22 so I haven't really racked up a long list of ex-boyfriends. The ones that I have been lucky to share parts of my life with are still somewhat a part of my life now.

Being friends, or even friendly, with your ex(es), might seem really odd. I don’t have the statistics on this so take my word with a grain of salt, but it does appear to me at least that a lot of folks clean the slate after each relationship. Once it is romantically over…it's completely over. Numbers deleted. Instagram unfollowed. Done.

I was reminded of this recently when I first listened to Julia Michaels’s new song “All Your Exes.” It’s catchy, awful, and full of some insightful observations about the “wasted time” view of relationships.

What the song says…

Like I said: the song is catchy and fiery, and I find myself singing it all the time. I also find myself stopping when I realize it. The first verse goes like this:

I know where you’ve been, what you’ve done
Who you loved is a part of who you are
But that maturity ship sails when I hold you in my arms
There’s a spot on…