Continuing my journey through my Folklore Chronicles poetry, this is a piece for “this is me trying.” The last poem is here.
the right track
you’re a bright kid with a Bright Future
stay on track and go to college and you
can have any job you want and once
you have a good job you can buy a house
and once you have a house you can start
to settle down find a husband have two kids
who will be bright kids with Bright Futures and
if they stay on track and go to college they
can have any job they want and once they have
a good job you can retire and they’ll buy a house
and once they have a house they can settle down
with their spouse and give you two grandkids
who will be bright kids with Bright Futures
and if those kids stay on track…
“this is me trying” feels like the ultimate Millennial ballad, honestly. It’s all about living with anxiety and getting stuck in cycles as we try so hard to fit into pre-made boxes. Adults tell us all our lives there’s only one formula to follow, one path to success.
But the older I get, the more I realize there’s more than one path to success. Because it looks different for everyone. For some, success may look like a thriving career and a happy, healthy traditional family. For others, success looks like traveling the world and going on adventures. Others might find it in engaging with their community and neighbors.
The poem I wrote tackles that theme. It’s the classic “American Dream.” We’re taught to study, get a degree, get a good job, find a spouse, and have kids. And then the cycle repeats time and time again, one generation after another.
I kept repeating “a bright kid with a Bright Future,” because I heard it countless times throughout my life. So, when I got older and found myself jumping from job to job, unable to find stability for a long time, I felt like I’d failed.
It took me a while to realize that perhaps the path laid out wasn’t meant for me after all. At least, maybe not entirely. Especially growing up with the things our parents believed would secure our futures just weren’t true anymore. Perhaps they never were.
And I purposefully capitalized “Bright Future” because that’s the name of the scholarship we have here in Florida. High school graduates who finish with a certain GPA and decide to attend a Florida university or college qualify for this scholarship. It’s the scholarship that helped me attend the University of Central Florida and follow my path.
I’m not saying I regret going to college or grad school and earning my degrees. I certainly appreciate the work I put in to get there and achieve those goals. That time also brought me to people and experiences I needed to grow. But I see now that those weren’t my only choices for finding my way in life.
Thanks for following along! Comment and let me know what you think.