Do you see this?

This is what the last decade of my life will be worth if I fail.

A blank page.

A simple nothingness.

Determined by my performance on a single day

In a single hour.

No thought given to whether I was prepared

Whether I was composed

Whether I was unimpaired.

No, I am simply this:

But if I work hard, toil, and sweat,

Spend endless nights awakened by the call

To do that which has not been completed,

Strive for perfection,

And try to accomplish the impossible.

My value will no longer be this:

I will be worth so much more.

It will be a statement of my life

A full report on what I am worth.

All of my being wrapped up and sent off

To be seen by those who decide

Where my life will go next.

It will look like something far more measurable

And important to the world.

It will be of a larger importance

Carefully analyzed to look like this:

Test Score: Pass

Do they see me?

No. they do not.

They see only this:

Test Score: Pass

That is what they want

And that is what I will give them.

Even though what I really am

Could not possibly be decided by a single assessment.

I am so much more than a couple of words on a piece of paper

And yet that is all they will ever see.