We Are

Three thousand

Three thousand, four hundred

Three thousand four hundred people

All here for the same reason:

To get an education

And yet, somehow, we all become divided,

Segregated by what we do and how we look doing it

I am the nerd

Misunderstood, yet understandable enough to cheat off of

Now, just because I can understand the dynamic life of King Napoleon the 37^th

And just because I can write an essay that would put Shakespeare to shame

Doesn’t mean that I live under a rock and breathe in textbooks

I can Tumble, too

My face is in a book

I used to have a space that was mine

Yes,

I get the A’s, I get the grades, I get the awards

But, my mom also left, my dad’s always drunk so, I also get the chores

With the alcohol urging him to hit me so hard

 With any sight of the opposite of a plus sign next to an A

I understand that this life,

That I will only live once,

Needs to be full of positives

Because I am the nerd

I am the jock

I impress the teachers, out of the park

I score a prom date, touchdown

Life is good, yet

My brother died in an accident last month: fumble

My parents are getting a divorce this week: out-of-bounds

It’s going to be graduation day and college? Strike, I’m out

Now? I don’t know

A sports scholarship is my only safety net

Anything beyond that, it’s just not in the cards for me

But, what happens if no scholarships are offered?

Where do I go? What am I supposed to do then?

I may not be on varsity academics

But, I am a jock

I am the outcast

I walk into school

The days dragging on while my feet drag along

Same things, same routine

Unwanted, unneeded, unnoticed, defeated

Rejected, repelled, renounced, refused

The one thing I will always have: the bruise

The bruises that tell me I am not worth anything

The bruise that is more noticeable than I am

The bruise that urges cuts to rally together on my body

Binding me in self-destruction while my future destructs itself

The bruises that tell me that I am going nowhere

I am no one

I am nothing

I will never be

Anything

“You will never be able to repay me for the pain it took to bring you into this world”

She says as she strikes me

Blow after blow, I diminish

Into nothing but, a speck of dust on a deserted island

I am so cast away; I don’t even have a Wilson

Yet, I am here

I am the outcast

We are united here

Seven hours a day

Thirty-five hours a week

Six thousand, three hundred hours a year

Let us not allow segregation to flow through our halls

Let us be the change we want to see in the world

Let us pull a Breakfast Club

And understand the fumbles and bruises within us all

Because we are

Three thousand, four hundred people

And, yet, somehow, we are one