We see graduation as an ending.

It is the finish line at the end of a three-year-long marathon,

the final chapter of the middle school book,

each word a minute, each page a day.

We think we are finished.

But really, we are only just beginning, 

We are only just beginning to learn 

the shapes of our names, the way they fit us 

and the ways we will grow to fit them. 

We are only just beginning to explore

the galaxies inside us, unnamed and unknown.

We are only just beginning to grasp

how to seek instead of search,

how to find instead of being found.

We are only just beginning to discover

the answers to our questions.

We are only just beginning to understand

that there are no answers but the ones 

we write ourselves. 

We are only just beginning to comprehend 

what we were, and what we wish to be.

We are shadows and suns,

oceans and deserts,

wildfires and endless rain.

We are nothing. We are everything.

We will break ourselves and make ourselves,

sculpt ourselves and shape ourselves,

shred ourselves and stitch ourselves.

The world will not decide for us. 

No. It is for us to decide 

what the world will be.