POEM FOR WOODBRIDGE

 

I’m graduating in four months

which means I will no longer be haunting the halls

of Woodbridge Senior High School.

I don’t know most of you.

Some of you I’ve been in classes with for four years

and I still don’t know your names.

Woodbridge is enormous - it’s overcrowded,

it’s loud -

and I vowed I wouldn’t miss it but even now

I’m realizing how proud I am to be a Viking.

These four years swept by as fast as lightning

and as excited as I am to leave it’s frightening

to realize once this school year ends

I’ll have friends I might never see again.

In the blink of an eye we’ll say goodbye and be gone

and as stupid as it sounds, I don’t wanna move on.

 

So here’s to Woodbridge.

Here’s to high school, to breaking rules,

to teachers who were inexplicably cruel,

to not knowing the answers and playing the fool.

To empty halls, to late-night calls,

to graffiti in the bathroom stalls,

to long days spent inside these brick walls.

To breaking up and making up

and 6-in-the-morning waking up.

To Don Quixote and To Kill A Mockingbird,

to those people who always need the last word,

to writing essays you knew were absurd.

To endless tests and nights without rest,

to, for once, actually doing your best,

to realizing at the end it was worth all the stress.

I wouldn’t do it again, but at the end of this mess

there’s an actual lesson inside my address:

 

There are teachers who will change everything.

It’s really beautiful when the whole choir sings.

Ask that girl to Sadie’s before she goes with the wrong guy

cos even if it doesn’t work, the least you can do is try.

In a few months she’s gonna get on a plane and fly

and she might never know why you always said hi

with that sweetness in your eye.

 

I never thought I’d miss this place.

I never thought there’d be memories I wouldn’t try to erase.

I always thought this would be a thing I’d hate

but to my surprise, I wish I could pause this moment and wait.

Things go fast. This chance might be your last.

Tell your friends you love them before the moment’s passed.

 

So here’s to Woodbridge.

To the classmates we’ve lost,

to the footballs we’ve tossed,

to JROTC, to CFPA,

to saying goodbye before it goes away,

to the bleacher views,

to CNN student news,

to the friends we choose.

I’m glad I met you.