Going Away to College

The story behind blink‐182's Going Away to College takes us to a very specific moment, Valentine's Day 1999. It is said that Mark Hoppus composed it in just ten minutes, inspired by the movie Can’t Hardly Wait and feeling nostalgic. The lyrics explore the melancholy of relationships that end with graduation, the pain of separation when it's time to go to college. It is a reflection on saying goodbye to a love from many years of school.Although Mark Hoppus is the only member of blink‐182 who attended college with the idea of becoming an English teacher, his academic experience was brief, as he found the classes tedious.

In the context of recording the album Enema, Tom DeLonge described this song as "super romantic," highlighting the emotionality of the lyrics and how they fit with the music to tell the story of someone leaving their partner after years of growing together. It is a feeling that resonates with many people when facing the dilemma of maintaining a long-distance relationship or going their separate ways. The song has a duration of 2:59 and was arranged by the band itself. The recording featured the participation of Darrell Harvey, John Nelson, and Robert Read as engineers, while Jerry Finn took on production and Tom Lord‐Alge handled the mixing.