“Sooner or Later” by Michael Tolcher
In an interview with Notre Dame’s The Observer, Michael Tolcher states, “my music embraces the ups and downs, the cycles of emotion. It is unguarded honesty.” “Sooner or later” accomplishes exactly that. This song speaks to me and to the general adolescent population; it discusses the way we, as teenagers, fail to take important advice from others and instead we make our own mistakes and “learn the hard way.” As teenagers we have this strange desire to take chances, even if we know the outcome will probably be negative. Michael Tolcher’s “Sooner or Later” dictates how eventually, when we grow older and look back on all of the mistakes we made as children, we will laugh at our own naïveté. Yet, even with this knowledge, we choose to go ahead and make these mistakes because some things we have to learn on our own; the choice is ours.
The first verse after the first chorus is the verse that sticks out most to me. “We only want what’s best for you/ That’s why we tell you what to do/ And never mind if nothing makes sense” appears to be a conversation between parents and their child. These parents are providing a reason for all of the ridiculous rules that do not make sense. As teenagers we get aggravated with these restrictions, and at many times break the rules out of pure frustration, but we fail to realize why these rules are in place. Our parents set out these rules to protect us; we forget that they were in our position at one point in their lives and perhaps these rules they have created are enforced to protect us from making the same mistakes they once made. Personally, however, I know that I would rather make these mistakes on my own, rather than be restricted by my parents. “Sooner or Later” reiterates the importance of making our own mistakes and learning from them.