The Freshman

I chose the song lyrics from "The Freshman" by The Verve Pipe. I think it's a song we all know but don't really pay attention to the lyrics that much. I chose the first verse.

"When I was young I knew everything
And she, a punk, who rarely ever took advice
Now I'm guilt-stricken, sobbing with my head on the floor
Stop a baby's breath and a shoe full of rice, no"


In the first sentence, I think this could be applying to the audience of those who listened to them. I think they were appealing to a young or mid twenty group. "When I was young I knew everything"- I feel like we all thought that when we were 15, 16 years old. But the older we get the more we realize we didn't know anything at all.
"She a punk who rarely ever took advice". This could be going with the first line, of being at the age where you "knew everything". It could be the girl who was a rebel and didn't listen to advice from anyone because she already knew everything about her life.
"Now I'm guilt stricken, sobbing with my head on the floor"- at this point I don't think we know why he is upset but there is definitely an event that has happened that has left him this way. This line paints a picture of a kid who's life is turned upside down by feeling guilty about something and being very upset about it. It makes you wonder what he could feel guilty about because he mentioned before that he already knew everything. I think this event is something that he never would have imagined in a million years being something that he would have to deal with at a young age. It's something that he caused though, because of the feeling of being "guilt stricken". His head on the floor makes me think that he is so upset he could literally be lying on the floor because he doesn't know what else to do.
"Stop a baby's breath", this could seem like the flower baby's breath. And "a shoe full of rice" wouldn't seem like anything. I see a shoe full of rice as the result of a wedding, and the baby's breath being the flower at the wedding. At the end they guest throw rice in the air while the bride and groom exit which could cause their shoes to literally be filled up with rice. The "no" at the end negates this though.
This could mean that there was no babys breath and no "shoe full of rice", so no wedding.
 The baby's breath could be literal baby's breath, meaning there was an abortion. He feels guilt stricken for getting his girlfriend pregnant and since he "thought he knew everything at a young age" he meant that he would never imagine it would happen. His girl who was a "rebel who never took advice" could be her not listening to anyone about their opinion of whether to go through with it or not.
This song is about the life changing decision he had to make at an age where he thought he knew everything and nothing bad could ever happen.