This song came out when I was 9 or 10. Mom was a neglectful alcoholic and this song made me so sad I wasn't even old enough to know a boy who had a fast car I could run away with. We lived in Appalachia, and I was terrified of a boy being my only shot out of our economically depressed hellhole, kind of like this song talks about. I was scared of getting pregnant and staying stuck there, as many of my peers ended up doing. Mom was always stealing my paycheck and ruined my credit, so I was almost 21 before I got away. It was a bad, exploitative crowd that rescued me that I fell in with. As we were driving from my mom's trailer, my Volkswagen Beetle decided to only run on one cylinder and I had to drive ten miles an hour on an interstate for an hour. Couldn't even get a fast car. I remember feeling so mad at the world, that I had tried my best and this was the best I could do in Appalachia.

I'm in a better place now but holy balls, you're pretty much fucked if you grew up in an abusive home in America and try to make your escape at 18. There is no systems to help and people prey on people like the subject of the song and me, they can sniff out the desperation. So much of people's success in America is based on the assumption you have family and if you don't, well, too bad, bootstraps and all, rah rah rah... You're a tough cookie and you'll make it somehow, you always do! /s