Your Hobbies are Only as Good as How They Appear on an Application
As a teenage high school student, it’s reasonable that one thing always on my mind is school
Not only school itself, but the lessons school has given to me
For a place of learning, school has truly taught me more things about life than about textbooks
The first one is that you are the number that is your GPA.
The test grades, the speech comments, the project evaluations
Sum up your personality, your potential
Better than anything you could ever do outside of a classroom
Two, that you are other people’s expectations.
The parents, the counselors, the teachers
And the bars they set for you
Make up all you have achieved to this point and what you will ever achieve in the future.
Three, which is that your relationships with others define your ability to be socially accepted
The boyfriends, the girlfriends, the circle of friends
And their popularity status
Will hold you hostage as a prisoner of this system.
Four, that love is fickle and impossible to find in anything other than material things
The green pieces of paper with numbers stamped on them
That is what love is
And self actualization will only be achieved with massive amounts of it
Five, that technology and virtual followers and friends will bring you happiness
The numbers of likes, comments and favorites
And their real-world merit and weight
Will continue to fill you with joy year after year as you grow old
Six, that your body image is more important than what is inside your body
The media’s idea of “pretty” and “sexy” all translate to personal success
And you will never be good enough
Unless you fit the Seventeen Sports Illustrated Vogue image of perfection.
Now, with these life lessons in hand I think often about the future situations I may find myself in
And with all this valuable and applicable knowledge
I struggle to distract myself from the potential encounters that may occur
In which I can put this advice to use
So I take solace in running
In hearing the weight of my body land in just a footprint
In seeing myself fit my own, personal ideal of successful when I reach the top of a hill
In my time spent creative a health ideal of “perfection” for my body rather than poring over the online photos of airbrushed people who do not know me or my story
I let my mind take me on adventures
That even money could not buy
Through word after word on page after page of my writing, of my reading
Through note after note in song after song, heard on public transportation at my own personal concert venue
I brush up on the language of the law
In hopes that one day
I can argue a case so convincing that a criminal will find himself guilty
Or I can make a debut on my televised career, in the hall of fame right next to Judge Judy
I look at artwork
At paintings, bright and alive with color
That is not scribbled onto my face to make me beautiful
Or dyed into shoes that give me a false sense of popularity
And all the while, I watch my peers put the life lessons school has taught us into practice
And I wonder what the future holds, for us fortunate enough to have been graced with the privilege of learning
Where there are prizes awarded for having the courage to speak one’s mind
And respect is given for being able to walk in high heels, for throwing a ball the farthest
I live inside of a world inside of my head where I am the only one to be heard
And my voice rings the loudest, the clearest and the longest
But slowly approaching in my hindsight vision, my rearview mirrors
Is the future, labeled clearly but yet also illegibly
And it comes for me like a vulture circling its prey
My only escape is to be what they want me to be
So the ideas that make me tick and the things I love to do
Come second place to what school has taught me success comes through
Comments
Login or register to post a comment.
I am utterly blown away, especially by the second half of this poem! I really enjoy your style of writing because it is different-- almost scientific. However, in this poem you display your ability to paint with your words, too. You're a very versatile writer and you should cultivate your style, finding new ways to mix the matter-of-fact tone with your metaphors and colors.
My favorite part of this poem is the closure:
I live inside of a world inside of my head where I am the only one to be heard
And my voice rings the loudest, the clearest and the longest
But slowly approaching in my hindsight vision, my rearview mirrors
Is the future, labeled clearly but yet also illegibly
And it comes for me like a vulture circling its prey