College applications are a time where every applicant wants to show the best sides of ourselves and really promote what makes us great. We do it through having the highest GPA, best extra-curricular activities, or writing an essay where we speak about a topic important to us.
I chose the essay. And what I wrote about? None other than Mr. Harry Styles.
Specifically, I wrote about my experience seeing him in Nashville on his 2018 tour and surprisingly, it got me into every college I applied to.
In case you were wondering how I got in without writing about what I'd bring to a college, personal hardships in my life, or how I believe the college or world could be better, here's my essay:
"If someone had told me when I was thirteen years old that I’d write my college essay on Harry Styles, I would have laughed. Writing a college essay is a serious business, an undertaking that could shape the rest of my life, and Harry Styles is just a pop star. Ironically, here I am.
This essay isn’t necessarily about Harry Styles himself, rather the atmosphere he created on June 12, 2018, at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee. What I experienced that night was something I will never forget, and I don’t believe I was the only one who felt that way.
That night during the concert, Styles performed numerous songs lead by surging multicolored lights and rhythmic beats, but none of that impacted me as much as the soothing melody of ‘Meet Me in the Hallway.’ It is strange to think that such a simple song is what made this moment special for me, but it was definitely not the song’s work alone. The lights were lowered, with the exception of a lone spotlight that illuminated Styles’ figure on stage. He was accompanied only by a guitarist strumming in the dim glow behind him. I never knew a song could make me feel so much emotion until I heard the audience singing the bridge of the song like an echo behind Styles’ own voice. “Gotta get better, gotta get better.”
At this moment, I did not just feel like a giddy excited teenager at a pop concert. I felt calm and connected to every person in the arena, all of us singing in unison, including Harry. I could tell by the swaying bodies and smiling faces that everyone must have felt the same support and serenity I did. Moments like these remind me how essential it is to share a connection with those around you. I imagine this is what artists are trying to inspire when they write and record songs, and I felt that Harry really aced it with this one. Even now, three months later, I can still recollect how it felt, standing in section two-fifteen, watching him perform.
To me, feeling a connection to those around you in the world is one of the most vital things in life. It is important to know how your friends and family are feeling, or even to just acknowledge how the seemingly smallest of your actions might impact those around the world on a larger scale. Being aware of the influence that your perspective might have on someone else is hard to do when there are so many varying opinions on politics, culture, religion, and every topic imaginable, but when I felt united to all twenty thousand people in that audience during those
short three minutes and forty-seven seconds, it just felt right. I felt not only in control of my mood but in control of myself in general. This connection to others not only improves your awareness of the experience of those around you but your self-awareness as well. The lyrics Styles sang, “Gotta get better,” hit home for me in a way they hadn’t when I’d first listened to the freshly released album in my bedroom over a year prior to that moment. The words also helped
me realize that I needed to stop letting the little stressors get to me, grab a hold of my future instead of just floating wherever life takes me, and truly ‘get better.’ I’ll never forget the special moment Harry and his audience created that night, not just because it changed how I’ll listen to that song, but because it changed me and how I relate to the world."
Doesn't sound all that amazing, does it? Yet that's all it took to be accepted. So, next time you are discouraged over something similar, or maybe writing your own application essay, remember the girl who literally wrote about a Harry Styles concert and was accepted. You can do anything.
Oh, and thank you Harry, for giving me that moment to write about and a night I will remember forever.
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