Culmination
Life is a series of little moments
Strung together like pearls on a necklace
All adding up to a significant change—
There is no single point, no pivotal event
But a series of slight shifts that you don’t
Notice until they have accumulated.
So I couldn’t just say, “I realized
I was a child no more when I earned
My driver’s license hours after taking
my biology final.”
And I wouldn’t be telling the full truth
If I typed on a computer, “I first
Looked into the face of adulthood on
My seventeenth birthday” because, in truth,
It’s a culmination of all those things
Of understanding every dirty joke
And realizing you’re facing senior year
With five months left until you turn eighteen
I guess you could say I don’t know for sure
Exactly when I chose to see myself
As past the tender stage of childhood
But I remember when I was a kid
A girl who thought she’d be forever young
I see a different person than the one
Who set foot in the high school that first day
And walked to classes without any clue
Of things beyond the scope of being young
And opportunities of growing up.