Get Your Tissues Ready — Matthew West Just Released a Video for Graduation Song of the Year '18 Summers' (Exclusive)

"When you think about the time you get with your kids and put it in that finite focus of summers instead of years, you feel the weight of it," he says

• Matthew West's viral hit "18 Summers" is quickly becoming this year's graduation anthem

• The Christian singer-songwriter's own daughter, Lulu, is off to college this fall

• "That's just the season of life for us right now," West says

It's been an emotional time for Matthew West as of late.

"There's a good chance, on any given day, that if you walked into the West House, you'd see a grown man cry," West, 47, tells PEOPLE with a slight laugh. "And that's not my thing."

But when fathers watch their daughters grow up before their very eyes, sometimes those eyes can get teary when one least expects it — even when one is an award-winning Christian music singer/songwriter.

"Just yesterday, our daughter came home from school, and she tried on her cap and gown," explains West, whose 18-year-old daughter Lulu just graduated from high school and will be attending college at the University of Tennessee this fall. "Of course, then my wife started crying. That's just the season of life for us right now."

Certainly, it’s the season of life that so many find themselves in right now, and a season of life that West found himself writing about when he wrote his viral hit "18 Summers."

"I had heard that when you think about the time you get with your kids and you put it in that finite focus of summers instead of years, you feel the weight of it even more," explains West, who currently climbing the Christian music charts with his single "Don’t Stop Praying." "It hurt my heart to think of it that way. And now here we are on the 18th summer, and it really did go as fast as people warned me it would."

Written alongside Jeff Pardo and AJ Pruis, "18 Summers"' lyrics seem to come straight from the life of West and his family, which includes wife Emily and their two daughters.

"Every year, I wanted to kind of paint with a different color," says West of the "18 Summers" lyrics that even mention Taylor Swift. "I just wanted to include a little snippet or a little moment that came to mind when I think of that year with my child and the relationship that my wife and I have had with our kids, from not sleeping when they were 1  to them jumping to us in the pool when they were 3 to going to prom at 18."

It's a myriad of realities that plays out beautifully in the music video for "18 Summers."

"Selfishly, I love the treatment of the video because it ends with the dad coming home after dropping his daughter off at school, and then he sees that she left him a letter, and you don't know what the letter says," West explains. "It implies that she's saying something to her dad about her gratitude for him, or maybe that's just me subliminally hoping that she doesn't think her dad screwed up too bad."

He lets out a laugh, but certainly West need not worry that he gave all he could to his family while also establishing himself as one of the most popular Christian artists out there.

"I'm not trying to be some tough guy who never shows his emotions, but as a music maker, you've got to leave those emotions close to the surface," says the hitmaker of songs such as "You Are Everything" and "More." "You don't bottle those up and push them down. I think writing this song right now was a way of me to just feel what I'm feeling and deal with what I'm dealing with. It’s about totally embracing the beauty of each season."

Related: Matthew West Releases Director's Cut Music Video Inspired by Fan Who Died from ALS: 'I Was So Moved'

It's a motto strengthened by West’s faith. However, West admits that he has loved seeing "18 Summers" reach so many music fans, especially those that might not consider themselves strictly Christian music fans.

"My music's been primarily recognized in the faith-based world, but there's songs about life that are just from a faith perspective, and that's the lane that I've always felt like I belong in," says West, who has written songs for the likes of Rascal Flatts and Scotty McCreery.

"I feel like I write these songs that are just about life. They are snapshots of life. They're written inspired by the chapters of our story. But because my faith is important to me, I always see my life through that lens of faith." He pauses. "Even though this season feels a little more sad than happy, I'm trying to find the beauty of it."

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