A Grateful Pledge

Dec 31, 2021

Kelvin Chang MD’24

A Grateful Pledge is a song I wrote for the Ceremony of Gratitude our class held in the spring of 2021 for the families of the donors who contributed to our anatomy lab. The event held a special significance to me because a close friend of mine who passed away had donated his body to science. I was finding it rather difficult to express the things I wanted to say through prose, so I decided to go with the medium I was most comfortable with: music. I find that with music, one has the luxury of being less precise with diction since the chords and melody can bear some of the responsibility of communicating emotions that are less easily translated into words.

Anatomy lab is often viewed as a rite of passage for many medical students, and it definitely held true for me. I came away from the experience with a deep appreciation of our anatomy donors’ sacrifice and generosity in contributing to our learning, and a desire to pay it forward. The message I hoped to convey with this song was one of profound gratitude, and contained a promise to use the invaluable gift of knowledge bestowed upon me for the preservation of my future patients’ health and well-being.

A Grateful Pledge 

By Kelvin Chang 

How do I begin today?
I’ve got some words I’d like to say.
I wish I had some magic way 
I don’t know how I can repay. 

I guess I just want you to know 
The loving arms that once held you so close 
Have taught these hurting hands to heal 
And what an aching heart might feel. 
And if it makes it better, I’ll do everything to pay it forward so somebody else can live a life that they want to. 

Among the things I learned were true, 
There’s one they don’t teach you in school. 
A death that gives breathes life anew. 
That gift of love’s worth more than jewels. 

Oh, so if sometime you are feeling down, 
I hope these words can help you off the ground. 
My nervous limbs are steady now. 
It’s because of you I’m ready now. 
So if it makes it better, I’ll do everything to pay it forward so somebody else can live a life that they want to. 

Ooh, can I just say thank you? 
Ooh, can I just say thank you? 
Ooh, can I just say thank you? 
Ooh, can I just say thank you? 
Ooh, can I just say thank you? 
Ooh, can I just say thank you? 
Ooh, can I just say thank you?

Kelvin Chang

Brown Medical School - Class of 2024

Kelvin Chang is a second-year medical student who loves melodies, sounds, accents, and the fleeting islands of silence in between. You can find more of his music under the name Oskar the Bear on Apple Music or on Spotify.