Self Portrait

of a very talented young lady. I recognized her last week as a reader, and a writer. Very quiet, she looks like she hangs on all the teaching I have to give on a day, but there is obviously more. This is the sad side of high school now, the non-acceptance, the sadness and the isolation so many kids feel. She wrote the following on a poetry assignment, and I wrote her a long note back.

Every week is all the same

I walk with the crowd, and the crowd walks with me.
Life isn’t hard, but it isn’t easy either. No one knows, except for me
All I wish is to be just like them
and fit in.

7 periods a day,
4 days a week
it is just all the same
every week.

I’m just there
they don’t see me
lost and confused on
why they don’t like me
That’s how it is
that’s how I feel.

Nobody gives a care in the world
to even say a word
when I’m alone
even simply “hi”
I’m the one who says hi
they are the ones who say bye.

7 periods a day
4 days a week
it is all the same
every week.

I try and I try
just to be like them
but what I learned is
I will never fit in.

I am me and that is enough.

I wish they would open their eyes
and see how difficult they make it seem that I can’t be me
without being judged or
made fun of
for being who I am.

I look for within
the keys that are hiding
me from the world
where I can be me.
That place is home,
I wish it could be here.

Happiness is there
just not as often.
That smile on my face
it could be real
or it could be fake.