“Maybe”

you say

“you should have worked harder.”

Harder. Harder. More. Always needing more.

“Do your work.

Get a good night’s sleep.

Eat a balanced diet.

Keep a good GPA.

Extra curriculars are important.

And remember that it’s okay to be yourself”

Remember a million things.

Do a thousand tasks.

Be in a hundred places at once

but be one true person.

Simple?

 

“Maybe”

I want to say

“You should open your eyes.”

Wider. Wider. Almost there, but never close.

Guidance? Please.

Guidance to where?

A future you are preparing us for

While making impossible to keep up with?

 

Maybe

We could find the line between education

and school

Education is a beautiful thing that runs the world.

It is the foundation for everything.

Knowledge is power.

Music, art, literature, history, life-

all beautiful things

That I can’t wait to dive into.

School

is a place where this education is expected to happen

but does not live up to the expectations.

Hate, hurt, stress, violence, anger, hell-

not just education.

School in our country may be free

but learning is certainly not.

 

Maybe

the price of school could not be the expense of our lives.

Of our families

Of our futures.

Of our individuality

and our sanity.

 

Maybe

I want these extra curriculars

but am barely surviving on the schedule I have

School, work, homework, family-

they take more time than you think.

Right now

it sleep till 7

school till 4

home till 5

rehearsal till 10

drive home till 11

homework indefinitely.

repeat.

I found an hour.

an hour for 2 chapters of english

3 pages of algebra

an article in history

a spanish worksheet

and a science webquest.

could you do it?

Can I?

 

“Maybe

you should have gone to sleep earlier.

You could have eaten.

You just didn’t spend enough time on this.

Join a club.

Work Harder.

Do better.”

you say.

Well,

I say

 

Maybe

I do want to do well.

I do.

So badly.

Please help me;

don’t be a barricade holding me back

when all I need is an ally.

Don’t be the one burning it down

storming the gates

thinking that you are being right and just

when all I wanted

was to make it out alive.

But you never took the time

to see it my way.

And maybe

if you would

I could make it through the long nights of homework,

the skipped or unhealthy fast meals,

the subject neglected for another,

the time consuming extras,

and maybe come out

on top of this.

maybe.