Late night in the dorms, and Ariana Grande had just surprise-dropped “thank u, next” the day before.

“Hey!” I called as I walked through the door and tossed my bag onto my chair. Brynn was flicking through her phone in bed, Lucy was at her desk browsing manga on her laptop. “Have you listened to ‘thank u, next’ yet?”

“Oh my gosh YES!” said Brynn. “It’s soooo good! She’s such a queen!”

“Isn’t she? That girl can deliver!”

Brynn turned to Lucy. “Have you seen her video yet?”

“I don’t keep up with American pop music,” said Lucy.

“Okay, but you have to listen to ‘thank u, next’ at least,” said Brynn.

“Why do I have to?”

“Okay, maybe you don’t have to, sorry, but, uh—”

I stepped in to assist: “—but you’d be missing out. This song is, like, an event.”

Lucy wasn’t convinced. That much seemed clear. But then she said, “I’m really curious. What is it about this song in particular that you like?”

Brynn composed herself. “Well, okay obviously I can’t speak for everyone, but I felt like Ari really spoke to me. She’s singing about her feelings toward her exes, but it’s not a diss track. Instead she’s calling them out in order to thank them. She’s saying, even though you weren’t right for me, and there’s a reason why we’re exes, I’m still very grateful that you were a part of my life. She sings, one taught me love, one taught me patience, one taught me pain. Like, each one of them, whether they were an angel or an asshole, just being with them taught her different things about herself and helped her grow as a person. And now she’s done with them, but she has better things to do than to talk trash about them. I just think that’s so affirming, you know? Like, I’ve been thinking about what happened with me and Caleb last spring. I feel like, it’s like all the songs I hear encourage me to shit on my past relationships to prove, like, I’m strong or whatever and I don’t need no man in my life, and yeah, some people need to hear that, but to be honest I learned a lot about myself from being with him. Don’t get me wrong, we’re through, of course, and we’re never getting back together, but I was thinking last night, is it healthy that my feelings toward the idea of him are clouded in negativity just because of how it ended? And the way Ari says, thank u, next, it’s like, the thank u and the next are co-equal parts of her message. They’re not opposites. Like, there’s nothing contradictory about being thankful for them and moving on. It’s like those sentiments can and should coexist. I just think that’s a more nuanced take on relationships than like 99 percent of all the other breakup songs. And maybe I’ve been a more unpleasant person since the breakup, and you can totally call me out on that, but I think I finally have a mantra for moving on.”

“I see,” said Lucy. “Thank you for sharing. I think I’ll listen to this song. How about you, Emily? What did it mean to you?”

“Uh, same!” I said, because my original response would have been I liked the chord progression but now that felt inadequate.