The song that took us there

The first time I heard Bon Jovi's "Living on a Prayer," I stopped dancing during the OA Welcome Dance and nearly laughed out loud. Certainly this "classic" of a song was slipped in by accident, or perhaps as a joke, by the DJ so intent on resettling the Frist foundation with his bass beats. Little did I know, the song would follow me through my time at Princeton and even become somewhat symbolic as the years rolled on.

I remember hearing it at Winter Formals freshman year, when I snuck into Colonial with my girlfriends. We thought ourselves super cool as we slid by the bouncers in our prom-fresh formal dresses and onto the dance floor. As we danced together, the familiar downbeat started and one grabbed my hand, "Hey! We really are halfway there!" It was true, with Christmas break quickly approaching, our freshman year was indeed halfway over. Freshman year, "there" clearly implied summer.

I lost track of the song sophomore fall amidst my five classes, until Houseparties came along. Enthused seniors and weary juniors filled the clubs while we sophomores, finally "legal" members of the clubs, grabbed onto one another, yelling "Take my hand, we'll make it I swear," as we realized our time at Princeton was indeed halfway over.

Junior year, the trauma of independent work and departmental affiliation clouded nights at the Street and suddenly "halfway" seemed just that — equidistant from starting point to midpoint as from midpoint to endpoint. The light at the end of the tunnel only illuminated how far we had left to go: another JP, more exams and — the cherry on top — a thesis. We yelled along just the same, but lost part of the passion in our voices as we looked at the still-crisp sophomores eagerly laying claims to the milestone year of what would be "their song."

Senior year, the song seemed to be little more than a soundtrack behind our taproom thesis updates and the background noise radiating from the Street, permeating the walls of Firestone. "Halfway" suddenly scared the hell out of us as we eagerly reached for more time to complete unstarted theses. We clamored for an extralong remaining "half," but soon lost that half to what actually stood between us and reality: a mere quarter. We adjusted, redefining our halfway point as the midpoint of senior spring, not the midpoint of the Princeton experience. Either way, even a quarter proved to be an overestimation last weekend at Houseparties when I looked at my girlfriends, the same three that once grabbed onto one another and pantomimed being halfway to somewhere that even we didn't understand. This time, we understood far too well.

Not to knock Bon Jovi, but "Living on a Prayer" is hardly a top 40's hit on the alternative music stations of XFM radio these days, so I was surprised in '96 and again in '01 when both my siblings' Senior Step Sings featured the catchy number. "Whatever," I thought to myself, "Hairband music" — If Garth Brooks didn't cover it, my limited musical experience had no record of it. Little did I know that the song would follow me to and through Princeton, somehow defining each year and experience. It'll likely be at this year's Step Sing — curious, but true.

What is it about "Living on a Prayer"? Granted, Bon Jovi has more staying power than Vitamin C's "Graduation Song" — don't pretend you don't remember the words — but why has it lasted so long? Is it our underlying existential search for something greater than ourselves that we can call out to in times of need and trial, through the theological idea of prayer, to a higher deity? Or is it something more superficial, simply the bonds formed by friends early on as they laughed at the Street and in dorm rooms, grabbed hands and pledged to "make it," wherever "there" might lead them. Princeton is in the memories — and the songs — that fill the undergraduate mind. I have no doubt that if I come back four years from now, the incoming freshmen will be remembering their moments marked by Bon Jovi and his prayerful promises of making it through together. Ashley Johnson is an English major from Florence, Ala. She can be reached at ajohnson@princeton.edu.