I first discovered the honest and witty songs of Adele back in 2011 when I was only 11, and I’ve been growing up with her ever since.

She was promoting her second album, “21,” by performing “Rolling in the Deep” on Dancing with the Stars. The beat echoed through my body, into my heart and my breath was taken away by her grandiose voice. I wish I could say I knew her back in 2008 when she released her first album, “19,” but I guess my nine-year-old self wasn't quite wise enough to think about if I should give up, or if I should just keep chasing pavements. 

But don’t worry, I made up for lost time, and Adele has definitely made me feel her love through the years. Although I hadn’t gone through a breakup in 2015, her album “25” still had me crying on the floor at 2 a.m. wondering what I was doing with my life as a 16-year-old.

Synne Sollie, a senior screenwriting student and an avid fan of Adele, has a special place in her heart for Adele’s R&B-infused cover of Bob Dylan’s “Make You Feel My Love,” because her mom — who is also a fan of Adele — sends it to her and her sister whenever they are having a bad day. “When We Were Young '' is also one of Sollie’s favorite Adele songs, because it makes her reminisce on being younger and growing up in Norway. 

“She has such a broad audience, and even though ‘When We Were Young’ is sort of meant as a love song, it can hit such a wide range of emotions that can fit anyone from like 15 to 100-years-old,” Sollie said.

Another Adele fan, named Amelia Kuhn, said “Chasing Pavements” is the first song she ever heard by Adele, and it was during none other than midterms week her junior year of high school. Kuhn’s friend played it for her when they were both stressed out, and it has now become a soothing song for the freshman journalism major to listen to and belt any day, any time. 

“I cannot relate to (Adele’s) life at all, but she makes me feel like I want to burn a man’s house down,” Kuhn said. “As much as I hate how men have treated her, whenever she has another love life scandal, I’m like, ‘This music is about to be so good.’”

For the past six years, we have all been listening to the same 40 Adele songs on repeat. Personally, mine is on a vintage CD that I play in my car, which I think Adele would approve of, considering her “Hello” music video featured a flip phone in the iPhone-obsessed year of 2015. 

Now, I can add another song to my CD collection as Adele’s first single and music video in six years was finally released Oct. 14 in the U.S. after months of speculation. 

The new single, “Easy on Me”, is a heart-wrenching song that Adele wrote about her 2019 divorce. It was the first song she wrote for her new album, “30,” which is the age in which Adele got married, divorced and simultaneously started writing her album. After writing "Easy On Me," Adele didn't feel the need to write any other songs for six months, because she felt like she got all her pent-up emotions out while writing that one song, according to British Vogue. 

“I was like, ‘OK, well, I’ve said it all,’” Adele told British Vogue. 

And boy, did she get it all out. The song starts with an instrumental intro, which is classic for most Adele songs such as “Don’t You Remember” from “21.” When she starts singing, her voice emerges subtly, similar to most of her other songs — like “Someone Like You” from “21.” 

In typical Adele fashion, the song soon becomes a proper ballad when the chorus hits. It intimately speaks to how she settled down with her now ex-husband when she was “still a child” and had her now almost nine-year-old son when she was just 24. She goes on to explain that she tried her best in her relationship as a mom and partner, but her lyrics beg her former significant other and son to “take it easy” on her since she hadn’t had “a chance to feel the world around” her when she got entangled with them.  

Teryn Re Carter, a music professor at Chapman University who specializes in pop and jazz, told The Panther she appreciates how candid Adele continues to be with each album she puts out. She said even though Adele’s story has changed a lot through the years, her extreme honesty has remained unaltered.

“Adele has always been someone who emotionally connects with her audience through her songwriting and intimate vocal style,” Carter said. “Not that there aren’t other vocalists who do the same, but it’s what separates the vocalists who can sing (from) those who can sing and (emphasis added) make us feel something.” 

Adele’s raw portrayal of her experiences can be interpreted in so many ways, creating a link of empathy between her and her listeners. Although I haven’t personally gone through a divorce, “Easy On Me” made me reminisce on my younger self making decisions that I probably wouldn’t make now. 

The album brought me to tears as I reflected on who I’ve become and the choices that led me to this place. Lately, I’ve found it increasingly difficult to pause for introspection; but Adele’s new music helped me take a step back to analyze my thoughts. Similar to Adele’s intention when creating the album, I, too, hope these songs will help me find closure with my anxieties.

Writing this album was dual-faceted for Adele, as she hoped it would provide comfort to her son throughout the divorce process in addition to helping her grapple with her own troubles. 

“I wanted to explain to him through this record, when he's in his 20sor 30s, who I am and why I voluntarily chose to dismantle his entire life in the pursuit of my own happiness,” Adele told British Vogue.

The music video for “Easy On Me” mimicked Adele’s nostalgic lyricism by paralleling the composition and set design of previous music videos: the singer’s 2012 music video for “Rolling in the Deep” featured her sitting on a chair fit for a queen, singing in a bare room in a house that was clearly being fixed up. In the “Easy On Me” music video Adele is seen singing on a chair that bears a strong resemblance to the 2012 one.

Additionally, in Adele’s “Hello” music video from 2015, she is seen moving into a furnished house that looks to be somewhat abandoned. In the “Easy on Me” video, Adele leaves a house that looks much like the “Hello” house, as if to indicate that she is leaving her past behind. She also passes a car that holds a newly married couple, which could symbolize her driving past the memory of once being married. 

As the secret release date of Adele’s new single, which listeners now know as “Easy On Me” approached, there were actually quite a few clues sprinkled across the globe, which fans pieced together.

First, billboards with a blue background and a gold number 30 started popping up all over the world. Although Adele told James Cordon during their episode of ”Carpool Karaoke” in 2016 that “25” would be her last album, fans still took the elusive billboards as a sign of her return. And they were right. Adele’s “Easy On Me” release date was announced just a couple of days later. 

All the hype around her long-awaited album clearly paid off, because when it came out Thursday, it broke the record for the fastest song to skyrocket up to #1 on U.S. iTunes in just three minutes. It also broke the record for being the most streamed song in a single day on Spotify and Amazon music. 

Adele said she was finally ready to release her new album, because she felt like she was in a good place and ready to share her vulnerability with everyone else.

“I can’t, like, unlock a door … for my own mental health and take the key with me; I have to leave it in the door for everyone else,” Adele told Zoe Ball at BBC Radio. 

With Adele being back in the contemporary music sphere, one thing is for certain: no matter how long she goes away from the public eye, she will always be the “One and Only” Adele, with her large hand gestures, expressive face, eyes that will burn a hole right through to anyone’s soul, and of course, that iconic grand laugh which is featured at the end of her “Easy On Me” music video. Not to mention, her talent — which will forever be an anomaly to the universe. 

Ladies and gentlemen, the legend that is Adele is here to stay. For now, I hope you take advantage of it and buy her album Nov. 19. I highly recommend the CD version, so you can listen to it in the car, like I way too frequently do. Adele will be right there with you, singing her heart out on “Easy On Me”.