Eighteen

I’m filled with nerves, excitement, and confusion
Engulfed by bundles of information
That while I thought I had instructions
Life instructions are created with no assumptions
Finding myself in a room of diverse ideologies
Talking to a face of another town, city, state, or nation
Understanding where they come from yet also hearing where they’re headed
Keeping an open mind, finding the facts
Formulating my opinions and understanding their responses

Finding myself in a room of diverse ideologies
Talking to a face of another town, city, state, or nation
Understanding where they come from yet also hearing where they’re headed
Keeping an open mind, finding the facts
Formulating my opinions and understanding their responses
Understanding the pressure yet excited of the abundance of possibilities

Flipping through pages of words that make me question
Touching, sliding, moving, hours on end
The many screens of technology
Connecting to points in a map, feeling closer and feeling farther

Yet while the world fills me with information
I am in the constant struggle to take the most in the moments of sensation
Finding the right time to talk to an old friend and laugh without care
Just give hugs and love those around me, the ones close to me

I guess what I’m getting at
Is that this year I tried to find a place in the information
To put feeling in the words on the paper
To take more out of the words on a screen
Feeling alongside the language
This required much attention

Making a point of understanding
To the cries of those outside but also the cries inside me
This led to finally accepting
While there is sorrow and hurting in the world
There’s also the same amount of laughter and happiness
I am learning not to dwell on the things I can’t change
Instead of running, trying to move slower

People aren’t all good and they aren’t all bad
I will move in and out of darkness and light all of my life
Yet a privilege to have a chance at experiencing all this much
Marking eighteen years of my existence