{"id":3994,"date":"2023-07-21T22:11:52","date_gmt":"2023-07-21T22:11:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.skippingstones.org\/wp\/?p=3994"},"modified":"2023-07-21T23:18:45","modified_gmt":"2023-07-21T23:18:45","slug":"stand-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.skippingstones.org\/wp\/2023\/07\/21\/stand-out\/","title":{"rendered":"Stand OUT"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-size: 18pt; color: #003300;\"><strong>Stand OUT<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #003300;\"><span style=\"font-size: 18pt;\"><strong>S<\/strong><\/span>mart<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #003300;\">Smarter<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #003300;\">Smartest<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #003300;\">That\u2019s all they care about in this test<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #003300;\">Your Creativity doesn\u2019t matter<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #003300;\">Your Hardwork doesn\u2019t matter<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #003300;\">the Blood sweat and tears you put in doesn\u2019t matter<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #003300;\">It\u2019s all about the score in the end<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #003300;\">This toxic cycle of making us believe<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #003300;\">Believe this is what we have to do to fit in <\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #003300;\">Fit in with society<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #003300;\">Fit in with the crowd<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #003300;\">Fit into the jigsaw puzzle <\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #003300;\">When you\u2019re your very own work of art <\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #003300;\">For how long does this go on <\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #003300;\">For how long does this cycle go on <\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #003300;\">This cycle of blending us all together as one<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #003300;\">Until we\u2019re broken and bleeding pieces <\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #003300;\">Working together in blurred masses<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #003300;\">Towards a goal that was never ours<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #003300;\">Stop<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #003300;\">Make it all stop<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #003300;\">Stop making us believe we\u2019re jigsaw pieces <\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #003300;\">Stop making us believe that we\u2019ve got no choice<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #003300;\">No voice<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #003300;\">That we cannot be a counterpoise<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #003300;\">That we\u2019re nothing more than a mere small voice<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #003300;\">Stop making us believe we aren\u2019t our own masterpieces <\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #003300;\">Stop making us believe that we\u2019ve got to fit in <\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #003300;\">When we were born to stand out<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #003300;\"><em>Likhita Makam is a 15-year-old Indo-American high school student living in India. She has been\u00a0published in youth newspapers and literary magazines. She&#8217;s an avid reader and is up for a poetry discussion\u00a0at all times. She hopes to inspire people of all ages with her words.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Stand OUT Smart Smarter Smartest That\u2019s all they care about in this test Your Creativity doesn\u2019t matter Your Hardwork doesn\u2019t matter the Blood sweat and tears you put in doesn\u2019t matter It\u2019s all about the score in the end This toxic cycle of making us believe Believe this is what we have to do to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,5,4,8,20],"tags":[560,563,175,561,562],"class_list":["post-3994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-asian-american","category-international","category-multicultural","category-poetry","category-social-issues","tag-educational-testing","tag-individuality","tag-poetry","tag-standardized-testing","tag-youth-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skippingstones.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skippingstones.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skippingstones.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skippingstones.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skippingstones.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3994"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.skippingstones.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3994\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skippingstones.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skippingstones.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skippingstones.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}