"Walking on the Moon" by Kayland

"Walking on the Moon" by Kayland - February 2014 Scholarship Essay

It felt amazing to be riding in the front seat of my best friend’s Honda Accord with the hot Georgia sun shining down on my face. We were seventeen years old and on our way to our very first concert. We were listening to the incredible rock music to prepare ourselves for the incredible rocking we would be doing in a little while. “Jasleen, what’s your favorite RHCP song?” I asked. She immediately started playing a song that I had heard before, but never paid much attention to, as it was slower than the rest of the Red Hot Chili Pepper’s music. This time I actually listened to the words, and they were beautiful. “Autumn’s sweet they call it fall; I’ll make it to the moon if I have to crawl.” In that moment I felt like anything could happen; I felt as if Jasleen and I were invincible.

“I’ll make it to the move if I have to crawl.” At that time, my naïve seventeen-year-old self did not even realize that the line was actually a drug reference. By the time I found out what the men of the Red Hot Chili Peppers were actually saying it was too late; I had already applied that lyric to my life. I had never felt so much power and life from eleven simple words in a song before. The lyric has become my own personal motto and I even plan to tattoo the words on my body as a daily reminder.

At the time I wanted to be a famous screenwriter and I knew it would take a lot of hard work and perseverance to make my dream come true. The “moon” was watching a script that I wrote being turned into a movie or television show seen by millions. “Crawling” was simply the hard work and challenges I would have to endure in order to make my dream come true. As a freshman in college, I am now leaving my hipster dreams of writing behind and I want to be a successful surgeon. My new “moon” is the feeling that I know I will experience after telling a patient’s family that my hands have saved their loved ones life. My new “crawling” is the eight years of school, at least six years of training after that, hundreds of thousand dollars of medical school debt, and the countless number of sleepless nights I will have to endure. I know I can do it though.

I realize that they are only words, I even changed the intended meaning of them, but those words are the reason that I will accomplish all of my dreams. I have no fear, because I know that finally reaching the moon will be an experience that not even words will be able to describe. Every time I hear the lyrics I go back to feeling the invincibility on a hot Spring day that only a seventeen year old can feel, and I hope I always will. There is no stopping me; I will make it to the moon, even if I have to crawl.