I wrote this poem shortly before I started college — hope you enjoy!

I leave the gymnasium a couple minutes 

before class officially finishes 

with a bell that pierces the air. 

I stroll through the same hall next to the cafeteria, 

where the scent of pizza fills

the atmosphere.

My feet shuffle toward chemistry class.

Not to ask questions about molecular bonding

but to ask my teacher how her day is going, 

And perhaps talk about mine as well. 

In a few months I won’t be strolling through the hall, 

but clinging on to this memory where the mundane 

seemed so perfect, 

while I stand awestruck at the college campus 

in front of me. 

I want to let the other memories evaporate — 

My stress climbing as my history 

grade dropped, 

the stress consuming me as I struggled to 

tell my story on a college application. 

This is the beginning of the beginning. 

No need to worry about whether 

they’re enough awards stacked 

on my college app, 

about whether my physics grade

was too low. 

Those countless thoughts and the 

time went into feeding them – 

evaporated, and the time: 

wasted. 

All that is over now. 

But this doesn’t feel like the definite end;

no, it feels like the unfolding

of a new beginning. 

One that has the perfectly average 

memories sitting on the creases, 

echoing in my mind as I walk down

this hall a final time, hoping 

this beginning will ripen into… 

something. 

Something I can be proud of.