Happy birthday to you, Adele!
The British songbird turns 28 today, and to celebrate the anniversary of her arrival in this world, we've compiled a list of her lyrics that have given us life through the years. Life, and tears. And happiness. And soul. And where would you get your most heartfelt Instagram captions if not for Adele?!
19 chronicled first love, early disappointments and regrets. 21 is a breakup album. 25 is a make-up album. All three of Adele's hauntingly beautiful albums contain treasure troves of wisdom, from "First Love" to "Send My Love (To Your New Lover)," and there's a lesson to be learned from each song.
But we've whittled it down to the essentials. As always, we live to serve.
1. "Fed up, biding your time / when I don't get nothing back...oh, I'm tired" ("Tired," 19)
None of us are strangers to exhausting relationships. Sometimes, the only thing left to do is admit defeat and walk away, knowing there's no shame in trying.
2. "You'll never know if you never try / to forgive your past, and simply be mine." ("One and Only," 21)
Too often we carry baggage around with us that just doesn't allow us to move on. Adele is encouraging us to leave the past in the past. Right on, A.
3. "Excuse me first love, but we're through. I need to taste a kiss from someone new." ("First Love," 19)
Continuing with the "moving on" theme, the Grammy winner shows us that moving on from your first love is possible. To the left, to the left.
4. "But I found a boy who I love more than I ever did you before / Look how you want me now that I don't need you." ("I Found a Boy," 21)
Ohhhh, burn.
5. "It matters how this ends, cause what if I never love again?" ("All I Ask," 25)
The way our past relationships end definitely plays a part in how we treat our future baes.
6. "Please forgive me for my sins, yes, I swam dirty waters, but you pushed me in" ("I'll Be Waiting," 21)
Here Adele both asks for forgiveness and assigns blame to her lover. Confuse them, they love it. That's the lesson we got from this one.
7. "I heard that you're settled down, that you found a girl, and you're married now" ("Someone Like You," 21)
If your heart doesn't sink for Adele every time this song comes on then go see a doctor because you're missing your sensitivity chip.
(Kidding, but we're passionate about passion, OK?)
8. "Should I give up or should I just keep chasing pavements / even if it leads nowhere?" ("Chasing Pavements, 19)
She made unrequited love—and following your wildest dreams in general—sound like a most noble pursuit.
9. "And if I'm not the one for you / You've gotta stop holding me the way you do / Why if I'm not the one for you? / Why have we been through what we have been through" ("Water Under the Bridge, 25)
That moment when you're stuck between wanting to be with a person and questioning whether you could even have a future with them. Ugh, THE FEELS.
10. "I could make you happy, make your dreams come true / Nothing that I wouldn't do, go to the ends of the earth for you / To make you feel my love" ("Make You Feel My Love," 19)
When you have that one special person, be it lover, family, or friend, Adele encouraged you to treat then right and make them happy when she added her spin to the Bob Dylan classic.
And we couldn't decide which cover made us weepier, so we are giving an honorary mention to:
10.5 "However far away, I will always love you" (Because if that isn't The Cure for everything, we don't know what is.)
There you have it, 10.5 ways Adele has made us feel happy, sad, devastated, exhilarated and—always—ever so alive.
Now take off the afternoon and reminiscence on the past and unrequited love. We may or may not have been doing this all day. Trust us, after the second box of tissues, it gets fun.
Happiest of birthdays to Adele, one of the brightest stars in the celebrity universe.