They told me, “No.

You will never make it.

It’s too complicated for you.

It’s project based learning.

What makes you think you can do that

When you can barely do regular work?”

They told me, “No.

You’re not poetically inclined enough.

You won’t get in there.

You wouldn’t last a week.”

 

But you know…

There were others.

They told me, “Here, let me show you this.”

Or, “You could make it better by…”

Or, “You’re better than a lot of others.”

 

I remember browsing the internet one lazy summer afternoon, I had come across an advertisement that said submit a poem to Natalie Portman. Now. I knew it was a scam, but I did it anyways. I was bored. But little did I know, that browsing the internet that day would lead me to be a published author a few months later. Stars in our Hearts, Mystic edition, by The World Poetry Movement. Page 63. A Time To Be Me. That was my poem. That was my greatest achievement – and! I realized that whenever I was kicked down to the ground, I had the choice to stay down…or get back up. You see, we don’t always remember that there is light above us when we have our faces slammed into concrete day after day. Life will knock us down. Life will kick us in the stomach, pull out our hair, poke us in the eyes, bite our tongues – yet…we can choose to get back up. We can choose to fight back.

 

So here’s to the people that told me I couldn’t.

Here’s to the people that told me I could.

This world has a place for me in it.

Just like I knew it would.

I’m going to a college to gain more experience in my left pinky toe

That you will ever have the pleasure to know

I can spit more rhymes

In the summertime

Drinking fine wine

Like it was springtime

And when the flowers started blooming

And life breathed that sweet scent

You will know what it’s like

To be young again

To have hopes and dreams

And desires more than anyone can see

Because the day you said no to me

Will be nothing but a memory

I will come back and rub it in your face

And I will smile because you’ve been put in your place

I’ll come back, so set a date in your calendar

First graduating class of 2014

For all eyes will be watching

All ears will be listening

To those who told me I could

Thank you, for everything

I learned more knowledge from you

Than all my previous teachers, and then some, too

Because I didn’t just learn knowledge

I learned wisdom

And as I’m writing this now, you can bet

I’m going to make a name for myself

Not anybody else

I will be the top shelf

Not…under somebody’s thumb

Not another crumb

I will climb my way up the universal ladder of success

I will drive my passions farther than

Louis Armstrong cycled the Tour de France

So one more time, thank you

And to the ones that told me no, f*ck you

Because they told me…that I will.