Stereotypes reach farther corners than simply gender, race and sexuality,

but who would ever even think of starting a revolution for a group of kids that aren’t taken seriously?

Not taken seriously all because of the scribbles of “crap writing” on our notebooks, the deafening “noise” in our headphones, and the color, or lack thereof, of the clothes on their backs?

Too old to be children, yet we are too young to be adults, we can’t be trusted to make any of our own decisions, but they always want to know what we are doing with our life. 

We’re herded from class to class, sheep, being fed and groomed with information until our fleece is sheared, displayed as evidence of our growth, despite what the shivering pink form screams otherwise.

Numbers and letters written by others on pieces of paper determine our value and our future. 

The teachers let us think and debate instead of revealing the moral of the story before telling us the title of the book; one we would surely forget as we cross the hall to our next class.

Let us decide what to take from what’s shoved under our noses, but then tell us that we are wrong and make us second guess ourselves. 

We’re given the puzzle pieces, only to discover that they fit together in more ways than one and sometimes awed students are embarrassed to make the decisions for fear of choosing the wrong one or judged for their choice. 

Afraid to voice how affected we were by words on paper.

Trained to hate school, we are expected to shrug everything off, to move down the hall pretending everything’s fine, the only evidence of our experiences being the memories we hold. 

Our feelings are difficult to express with the constant fear of sounding Hallmark-esque, simplistic rhymes being as nauseating as stepping in a dirty puddle while wearing sandals, the muck of other people crowding the space between your toes and I think that if it’s so easy to use someone else’s words, then what I feel may not be as profound as I originally thought, so I ditched the less-than-sincere, flimsy phrased featured in cards with little painted flowers, opting for this instead.