Old Town Road

A lot can change in a year. The greatest example of just how much change can take place during 365 days can be seen in through Lil Nas X’s career.

The 20 year old rapper from Atlanta, Georgia dropped out of college approximately one year ago. Today, his single “Old Town Road” is No. 1 on Billboard Hot 100.

According to The Oprah Magazine, he said dropping out of school to pursue a music career was a decision his parents did not agree with.

In fact he ended up staying at his sister’s house for a few days until they came around to the idea.

“My dad initially was like, ‘there’s a million rappers in this industry,'” Lil Nas X revealed to TIME. “They wanted me to go back to school.”

Lil Nas X (his real name is Montero Hill) is the success story of determination, hard work, and a bit of luck every young adult dreams of achieving.

“Everything was very stressful,” he told TIME. “I would probably get three hours of sleep, staying up on the internet trying to promote my music at my sister’s house before coming back home. I would be over there sleeping on the floor—I didn’t want to come back home because I knew my parents would be mad at me. I had headaches, literally almost daily, I guess from depriving myself of sleep. And I was just being talked down to because I left school.”

But after the song gained popularity on TikTok, a social network known for generating music-based memes, Lil Nas X signed with Columbia Records, and the hit took off.

It gained more popularity when Billboard removed it from the Hot Country Songs chart last month, according to Rolling Stone. Billboard claimed that the song did not “embrace enough elements of today’s country music to chart in its current version.”

But the songs removal from the chart did far from hurt its success. It created more popularity, and even lead to Billy Ray Cyrus joining Lil Nas X to record a remix.

The overnight success of Lil Nas X is probably envied by other people his age. A 20 year old with two No. 1 Billboard hits, who wouldn’t be jealous?

But for the most part, college students, especially the ones at Troy University, just enjoy the music that Lil Nas X has created.

Dancing to the song at The Front Porch in Troy, Alabama are two sophomores at Troy University who are just happy the song exists.