This may sound really lame, but I owe my life to Corey Hart. Some recent events caused me to think back to a time when nothing seemed to be going right. I had just finished my sophomore year at Cal Berkeley. I was without housing, sleeping on my sister’s couch in Oakland. A relationship I was in had recently ended, not by my choice. My classes seemed irrelevant. Yes, I know, “boo hoo, poor little college kid.” But I was filled with an overwhelming sense of having nothing and, worse, the sense that it would always be that way. To this day I have dreams in which I am back in that summer of ’85.

So there I was, driving into Berkeley to continue looking for housing. I was on a mountainous road, and found myself gazing longingly in the direction of the valley. It seemed an easy solution to just… you know.

The radio was on, not so much for enjoyment as for company. Suddenly a song from Corey Hart’s new album “Boy in the Box” started playing. The song was “Never Surrender.”

Just a little more time is all we’re asking for
Cause just a little more time could open closing doors
Just a little uncertainty can bring you down
And nobody wants to know you now
And nobody wants to show you how
So if you’re lost and on your own
You can never surrender
And if your path won’t lead you home
You can never surrender
And when the night is cold and dark
You can see, you can see light
Cause no-one can take away your right
To fight and to never surrender

I know people always say stuff like this, but it seemed like it was being sung for me. I stayed on the road. Soon I found housing, switched majors, and started dating again.

I remind myself of this when things seem uncertain, when I feel lonely and lost. In time things do get better. But you have to stick around to give it time to get better. I had friends who didn’t stick around. But I also have friends who, like me, decided to never surrender, and we are glad we did.

Michael Singman-Aste
Postdiluvian Photo

Tags: Corey Hart

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 9th, 2008 at 1:13 pm and is filed under Artists, Musings, Raves. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.