This Needs to Change

we bring our lunches and textbooks to school

only to devour the content of our textbooks with ravenous hunger for an A

rather than enjoy our lunches and the taste of laughter

we bury our heads in our history textbooks and memorize the dates Syria was conquered by the Islamic empire thousands of years ago

but we do not stop to look up and realize that Syria is on the brink of war in a thousand days

we program computers, robots, and hack

but we forget how to program our manners, our passions, and common sense

we learn about the importance of sleep in physiology class

only to cram for the next physio exam at 3 am

the eye bags from restless nights wander the school

even at 2 am

when the band comes back from a review

delirious and drunk

with delight and happiness

carrying the burden

of too many trophies won

yet still underappreciated

because if it is not a STEM subject,

it cannot spread roots for your future

the revolutions unit brings frowns and groans

when people step out of a bubble of naive

and finally mature and learn who what where when how

why

did i not see the stories in the eyes of the people

or did i see and ignore the truth because my mind was so set

on a definition that no dictionary would accept

that success is a choice

on whether you want to take AP Chemistry or AP Biology

and if you made varsity your freshman year

or if you were class president

for four consecutive years

of unchanging blindness and dreams that you think are yours, but are not

because they are the dreams that society showed us

when the world said

“here are your choices. are you ready to order?”

like our lives were a dinner option and they were an impatient waiter, trying to pressure

the next customer

the reason behind our stress, our tears, the tasks we deem dauntless

and the petty “A” that will not matter to our boss when they learn that we have never traveled out of the country, not even the state

because we were too busy competing at the state level for FBLA

is in our mind

it is a mentality; that success is something that can be definitely measured

it is the puppet master in my generation’s existence

the driving force behind the scramble for classes with limited seating

and the sole reason

why i am writing this $1000 scholarship for college poem

this needs to change