A High School Musical

I remember my first day

when my mom said

“if anything happens, I’ll transfer you right out

and put you into PHS”

 

When I first got to high school,

I was expecting it to be a lot like an early 2000’s teen movie

A Blink-182 or Sum 41 soundtrack

Always playing in the background

I’d get that cliche love story

I wanted it to be like a high school musical

 

Channel my inner Gabriella Montez

Who won the heart of the captain of the

basketball team

and still had time to get into Stanford

and sing a couple ballads

 

Freshman year:

Semi-punk rock, awkward, shy, anti-social girl

lover of all things Harry Styles

Long hair only a couple will recall

Chubby, badly dressed teen with bad eyebrows

I got put into an academy I didn’t even want

Who wants to count numbers when I could be singing

choruses with my very own Troy Bolton

 

I get to school and people are already in there cliques.

The jocks in one area,

Doing their thing,

The cheerleaders in another,

Just gossiping.

 

People pass by,

Time passes by,

And finally English.

Mrs. Parent is forcing us to write some poem

I’ve got words to rhyme,

Under a limit of time.

And I’m not even paid a dime.

I don’t like to write poems when I’m told to.

I need to be inspired.

Not just write them when they’re desired.

 

But I’m afraid,

This counts toward my grade.

I still think I should be getting paid.

So how about I tell you about why I write?

I hope you find it such a delight.

Writing is my way to tell a story,

Either about others or myself.

 

Somewhere along the way,

You might find clues,

Of what I went through.

I don’t write out of boredom or to entertain.

I write to show my pain.

 

Writing is my muse.

But sometimes people get confused.

Wondering why I write about me and others being abused.

The answer is simply because I can.

You’ll probably never understand.

 

Sophomore year:

Did I even have a sophomore year?

I haven’t transferred to PHS

My parents think this a good sign, maybe this is a good school

I haven’t changed academies,

mainly because I can’t face Mr. Ortega again

after confusing him for a choir teacher my first year

maybe it’s because I love this blonde, perky teacher who doesn’t have kids

but loves cats

who showed my class that you can kill your husband

with a lamb leg and then

cook it to the cops

and that’s how you get away with murder

 

Junior year:

I’m getting there, slowly but surely

My eyebrows are slightly better

uneven tan on my arms from a softball jersey

that can’t seem to stay in one place

in history class, we’re trying to decide who to give a kidney to

and somehow I end up being the only one who choses the prostitute

a subliminal foreshadow to the activist I am now

11th grade is coming to an end and

I make the decision to turn everything around

This could be the start of something new

 

Senior year:

Semi-punk awkward girl

now turned feminist, dirty hippy poet

who’s always down for a debate and an adventure

a Queen enthusiast

who will win an Oscar for the best lip syncing performance

of “Bohemian Rhapsody”

who’s just looking for Somebody to Love

 

4 years

3 different best friends

13 different crushes

1 major heart break

10 different shades of haircolors

that long hair is now gone

see I cut it every time I need to heal and move on

with eyebrows that are finally at their prime

 

Taylor Swift in spirit animal

because I write about the boys in my life

so good they don’t even know where to hurt

an open book

broken spine, ripped pages and all but someone still picks me up and wants to read me

and this

is just another chapter in my life that’s ending

because now, I Gotta Go My Own Way  

 

But I take with me all it's lessons

it is high school where I learned that:

yes Troy Bolton got into UC Berkeley

and hey, apparently everyone else can too

that it’s okay to “let people down”

because I am never going to give anyone what they expect

That you can go from fearing the stage

To then demanding it

And then,

Walking across it

I guess this is a bit like a high school musical?

 

I’ve lost the best teachers that made a classroom enjoyable

but I gained other’s who are now mentors

who remind me constantly to keep my Head in the Game

My family is here at Muir

who showed me that I don’t need to Stick to the Status Quo

The business academy are like my parents

AEM, is like that favorite uncle

Who always having my back and spoils me rotten

EESA is that family member that you never really know

if they dislike you or not

but no matter the differences that may divide our school,

we coincide as a family

a reminder that We Are All in This Together

This poem is about: 
Me
My community

Comments

shawnytucker

I love the way you alluded to various songs throughout the poem, and the way it ran through your years of high school. Great job!

BirdInFlight

I can really relate to this. You get it girl! 

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