“Counting Stars” is a song by OneRepublic that came out in 2013. Ten years and five months ago and this song's deep meaning still stands. It has good vibes with a cool, powerful tune. It is slow in the start and then speeds up when the singing comes in. This song used to be my favorite when I was younger. I enjoy this song because it has a deeper meaning once you look into it. It explains that you should use your freedom how you want, and not let other things control your life, and that money can’t buy happiness.

A line that is often repeated in this song is, “Lately I've been, I've been losing sleep, dreaming about the things that we could be. But baby, I’ve been’ Ive been praying hard, said no more counting dollars we’ll be counting stars.” This part of the song is very relatable to what I received on a lot of my tests recently. Now that the end of the year is approaching I’ve been slacking off. It made me think, forget about the grade, and forget about the money. Let’s just have a good life and be counting stars instead of having to worry about money and grades. 

The next part of the song follows the same ideology. “In my face is flashing signs, seek it out and ye shall find. I’m old, but I’m not too old. I'm young, but I’m not that bold, and I don’t think that the world is sold on doing just what we’re told.” I also feel that many people can connect to these lines because they show that I’m not too old, and I'm not too young to be making my decisions, and that I should be exploring instead of just doing what I’m told. The song feels that everyone should do that to follow their heart and instead of doing what we’re all told. The song is telling people to follow their heart.

The next part goes, “I feel something so right, Doing The wrong thing And I feel something so wrong Doing the right thing I couldn't lie, couldn't lie, couldn't lie Everything that kills me makes me feel alive.” This shows that the singer is not used to making the right decisions and everything that tries to take him down and “kill” him, just motivates him and makes him stronger. The next part of the song that stood out were these lyrics. “I feel your love, and I feel it burn, Down this river, every turn, Hope is our four-letter word Make that money, watch it burn.” It shows the importance of hope in situations and about how hope is greater than any value of money.  The whole point of this song is talking about how his adventures make him stronger which is shown clearly in these lyrics. “And I feel something so wrong. Doing the right thing, I couldn't lie, couldn't lie, couldn't lie, Everything that drowns me makes me wanna fly.” It shows that whenever something takes him down and tries to “drown” him, it just makes him stronger and “want to fly.” At the end of the song he repeats these lyrics multiple times and it sticks out to me “Oh, take that money, watch it burn, Sink in the river the lessons I've learned.” This shows that he can take his life lessons and use it better than he ever could with money. 

My whole life I have always been an advocate of each person having their own freedom and not being controlled by the little things. In ten, fifteen, maybe even twenty years, a lot of this will not matter and you can easily put it all behind you. This song is a great example of why a person should do what they want with their life, and listen to what they think is right and not follow anyones else’s decision. It teaches a valuable lesson that money cannot buy you happiness. Happiness is not dependent on wealth, it comes from life’s simple and meaningful moments.