Moana “How Far I’ll Go” Meaning

Moana is one of my favorite animated movies in the last few years and had one of the best soundtracks I’ve heard since the Lion King. A while back I was watching it and then came on the main song, “How far I’ll go” sung by Hawaii’s own Auliʻi Cravalho.

Now if you haven’t seen Moana, Moana, her family, and her people were always stuck on this Island and she never understood why and always adventured out to the Ocean ever since she was a baby. Now she is an adult when she sings this song.

The very first lines says “I’ve been staring at the edge of the water Long as I can remember, never really knowing why I wish I could be the perfect daughter But I come back to the water, no matter how hard I try”

As you can see or hear here that the sea is always calling to her, no matter what she does, she always ends up at the sea and she is questioning why is that even though she forbidden from her father.

Now my personal favorite part comes in verse 2 where she says “I know everybody on this island seems so happy, on this island Everything is by design I know everybody on this island has a role, on this island So maybe I can roll with mine”

Right here she is questioning the reality around her and is fighting on whether or not she should listen to her gut or listen to her dad. And this line really reminds me of everyday society. So many people are just running through the motions and doing what they are told instead of making a choice and decision to do what is right for them.

Now the last line I want to talk about is when she says “I can lead with pride, I can make us strong I’ll be satisfied if I play along But the voice inside sings a different song What is wrong with me?”

She at first thinks she’ll be ok if she stays on the Island and takes care of her people but at the same time she doesn’t know if she’ll be completely happy and be true leader if she ignores what she truly is.

I think a lot of people can relate to this song, many people are told that they need to do this or need to do that and many people listen to the ones on the outside and ignore their inner voice and they end up not happy and don’t fulfill their potential. What is that for you? And yes it can be scary, not listening to the people you love and especially if its your parents, grandparents, siblings, or maybe spouse is scary and take guts. But if you don’t do it now, you are going to look back your life with regret and nothing and I mean nothing is scarier and more terrifying than that.