Tag Archives: school life

One Wrong Thing

One Wrong Thing

By Alexa Dunsche, age 13, New York.

Don’t be quiet at school
otherwise people won’t like you;

be kind
but don’t be too kind otherwise it’ll come off as desperate;

you have to keep up with your work
but don’t go too far ahead otherwise you are a “goody two shoes”;

you have to be yourself
but you also have to be what other people want you to be in order to fit in;

“Aren’t you the quiet kid in school?”

you have to be nice to everyone 
even if they don’t treat you right;

“I have to be quiet because if I stand up for myself,
I will get shut down”;

you have to be loud and proud
otherwise no one will hear you;

“You are doing everything wrong!”

you have to smile for the picture
even if where you are smiling is purgatory;

you have to keep your cards close to your chest
but not too close otherwise people will think you are hiding something;

you can’t dress in black otherwise people will think you are emo
but you can’t dress too colorful either, otherwise people will look at you
like a little kid;

you have to follow the trends
but you can’t be too invested in them because it’s not cool the next day;

“I’m trying!”

you have to stay and not cry
because if you do, they will get pleasure;

you have to be perfect.
you just have to be.

if you make one little mistake,
you’re a failure;

one bad mark
can damage your grade forever;

one misstep
can send you to the hospital with a cast on your leg;

one wrong move
and you lose the game;

one new friend
and you lose the whole friend group;

one public embarrassment
and no one can be seen with you;

one wrong thing
not the whole story

By Alexa Dunsche, age 13, grade 7, New York. Alexa adds: “This poem came from the pressure I feel to be perfect, and how one wrong move can feel like it ruins everything. In the moment, I felt like each mistake I made erased everything else. Writing this poem helped me realize it doesn’t have to be that way. One wrong thing can feel huge, but it doesn’t define who you are.”

The Unforgettable Memories of School 

The Unforgettable Memories of School

 Waking up in the morning was a pain,
 Four more days to go, we’d say in our brain.
 Oh! Those long morning assemblies,
 Where we melted in summers and in winters stood numbly.
 I bet we all had a teacher who was like our worst nightmare,
 I will never forget all the gossip about her that we shared.
 Faking signatures was an inborn talent we all had,
 And making excuses was like our jam.
 In lunch breaks we shared our food,
 On one’s birthday to get two chocolates we argued.
 We passed chits around the class,
 From one end to another we would sit and laugh.
 The times before the exams were filled with anxiety and stress,
 Oh! Those dreadful sleepless nights, the misery we couldn’t express.
 We made many friends, but the true ones stayed,
 The others were good, but they eventually fade.
 For the weekend we would desperately long,
 The best two days of the week, oh! So, fast they would already be gone.
 We stuck with each other in times of laughter and in times of strife,
 Unaware of it all we made memories for life.
  
By Simerah Pinto, age 13, Dubai, U.A.E.
Photo: Simerah Pinto, age 13, Dubai, U.A.E.