Graduation

We will read like our lives depended on it Because to many of us, we assumed it did And then we will pass, or fail or sit on the fence Regardless, we will graduate What happens next? We'll trudge home, the bitter sweetness of it all clawing at our hearts Many of us will jump or scream or cry or all of the above And it will take a while before we finish the next phase of education It will take a while before we sort ourselves out There will be loud times Times of lively bodies, with tranquillity only being a distant memory Times of 9 to 5s creating a storm in our minds to match our bodies And we may not be able to explain Explain the storms we feel We will claw at our hearts and heads Trying to rearrange the pieces Trying to make it all make sense And it will take a long time At many points we may feel we finally got it The job, the house, the dreams But that is when we will realize we are changing When we begin to speak a little louder and walk a little prouder We may not initially understand just how fast we are growing Until the world falls silent And we are left at peace with ourselves, God And whatever rags we dragged along the way Until we begin to accept the things we used to run away from And reject those we held so close We will have many bandages and scars Making us look like we are newly wounded When in reality, our wounds are just beginning to heal Until we are not afraid to fall short Just as much as we are not afraid to succeed Accepting every part and fibre or our being That we were once told to despise or be ashamed of Until we gradually fall into the grace of growing older When we try to piece our lives together like a giant puzzle Reminiscing the good and the bad Rehearsing the tales we will tell our children and grand children Until many many years later, our bodies sink into the ground Just the same way so many more will And all that is left is the shadow of the life we lived And the invaluable footsteps we left in the sands of time That's when everything will all make sense The beginning, the journey, the destination