While many De Soto seniors have applied for and received scholarships for college, Simon Couch was awarded with a very unique one when he recently won a songwriting competition scholarship.

The contest was called Faith, Love & Song and was held by the organization SevenDays. Applicants were required to write an original song about loving and accepting others.

Couch’s song was called Reign of Love and explored “the idea of sonder.”

“The song is really about how every person you’ll ever meet feels just as complex and misimagined as you do,” Couch said. “I feel like genuinely trying to understand and acknowledge that can do a lot for people.”

Couch’s song was first scored by the judges and included in the final 10, then was passed on to the public for the final voting. The SevenDays YouTube channel posted each of the top 10 songs and counted each like they individually received as a vote.

Couch was very excited to see the amount of support he received during this stage of the competition.

“I was super thankful to see how many people were willing to reach out and spread the word to help me win,” Couch said. “That was really special for me.”

Though Couch ended up doing very well in the competition, he did feel a bit out of his element and struggled while writing his song.

“I’m normally pretty cryptic and heavy in my writing, and that’s definitely not what this competition catered to, so that was a big challenge for me,” Couch said.

Couch’s song received more than 1,500 votes and was one of three songs that won the competition. Each winner was rewarded with a $1,000 scholarship, and the winning songs are still available for listening on the SevenDays YouTube channel.