We Are

We are students

Putting it on ourselves to get perfect grades and ace every test

To show up on time, early mornings after pulling a late night.

Stressing over 30 minutes of work that determines 30 years of potential

 

We are siblings

The eldest are slaving away, trying to make a mark in the world or create a sculpture of their life from scratch.

They know it all rests on them and do their best not to crumple.

The youngest are looking up:

To what they could and should be,

never believing in what they want to be.

Preconceived futures, embedded ideas

 

We are children.

Craving adulthood and freedom yet not wanting to give up the

coloring book days.

Realizing we can’t have it both ways.

Thrown into a world where everything is

moving too fast, and split second decisions determine forever futures. We

just want our parents we want to be able

to run back to them in our dark times, but

soon we’ll be parents of our own. We are

still so young.

 

We are teenagers.

The hardest part.

Wanting to belong. Needing to belong.

Expected to be a certain way, act a certain

way, look a certain way.

Go to the gym 3 times a week work in

your 5 AP classes for 3 hours each.

Eat.

Sleep.

Socialize. Most important. Cause if you

spend your Friday nights inside you’re

just no fun.

But get a job. Work all the hours you can

cause college is coming and soon you’ll be an adult.

Do good in school, don’t crack under the pressure and if you do, well…

Just don’t show it. You’ll be fine.

Don’t mess up. Don’t act stupid. Get off your phone. Talk to more people. Don’t

dress that way. Too much makeup. Why is your acne

so bad?

It’s deafening.

 

We are just people. And we are cracking

and breaking, crumbling in the wind like

charred ashes.