The "Real" World

Anything is possible, I’m told as a child,

Astronaut, doctor, even president was in reach.

I began to imagine a life where the world

Fit in the palm of my hand,

And I begin to study.

Elementary school.

Picking at scabs and reading books

About Marie Curie, Charles Darwin, Einstein.

Hoping and praying that one day

My life will be filled with the wonder

That fills me every time I dream.

Middle school.

I’m given a schedule where my whole day

Is planned down to the second.

I’m given core classes

And my dreams start to drift

As my creativity and love for all things wild

Is smothered by worry about GPA.

High school.

I’m told no one will hold my hand

As I venture out into the real world.

Anxiety and stress take over,

My dreams disappear,

As new pressures come into my life

To make money, get straight A’s, and become perfection.

The real world isn’t what I thought it was,

Full of new things and opportunities.

Instead I’m greeted by debt, competition,

And a world I’m not prepared for.

My mind tells me everyone and everything

Is ready to see me collapse.

But I pick myself up, and dust off the comments

Of how I can’t survive the real world.

Because as long as I hold my dreams close to me

I remind myself

Anything is possible.