MacBook Pro will not start up?

Bought my Mac in 2011 and never had any problems with it until now :( It all started when my Mac started making these beeping sounds. I turned it off right away by pressing the power button because I didn't want to wake anyone up in my house. I should have listened since the amounts of beeps would have probably indicated what the problem was. The next day however everything was working great, until the message popped up saying "You need to shut down your computer. Hold down a power button for a few seconds to restart." So I turned the computer off and now when I try to turn it on the little light on the bottom of it lights up for about 2 seconds and the computer turns off again by itself. And this is happening repeatedly. From my understanding I experienced a kernel panic.

Any tips on what I should do? I am also not completely computer savy so the more detailed the explanation the better.

Really hope it's nothing serious and that I don't have to take it to an Apple Representitive because that will definitely cost a nice amount.

Thank you very much!