2 - Yasmin G: I Am From

Week 2: I Am From Poem

I am from the cold and windy levy

Down on Huron Avenue 

I am from the constant changes in small town elementary schools,

Discouraging teachers at each one. 

I am from building myself up when others tore me down. 

I am from the dog parks, sand through my toes,

Parks filled with tiny children, in awe over anything they laid their precious eyes on.

I am from the long move,

And finally finding a place to call 

My home.

I am from the people who brought me in as family,

Even though we weren’t related;

“Blood doesn’t mean family, and family doesn’t mean blood”

I can just hear my friend's mom say.

I am from the millions of pens I have collected over the years,

And the constant need for creativity.

I am from the people who always enabled my art,

And strived for me to create more, no matter how much I wanted to quit.

I am from the people who have kept me alive. 

I am from Nut Tree, 

The place I always seem to roam back to,

And I am from a pair of arms that always shows me my way.

I am from the lake,

Where I spend my hot summers.

I am from my room, that's always dark, cold and quiet,

The safe place that not everyone can enter,

And is consistently the same amount of organized messy.

I am from the ridiculous amount of effort I put into my school work,

Because as I haven’t always been the best in school,

Smarts aren’t something you’re born with, and instead, attained. 

I am from being the life of the party,

In every classroom I walk into,

Even if my life isn’t a party.

I am from developing the most amazing connections

With even more amazing teachers,

Whom I will always remember.

I am from the horrors of El’s past,

With a life of my own like the Upside Down.

I am the motivation of Joyce and the complex mind of Will.

I am from the love and compassion Mike has, 

And the mediation Dustin brings to every argument.

I am from the liveliness of Max,

And the theme song that brighten my mood

Every time it plays

And I can relate to it in one way or another.

I am from a long extended family. 

I am from kindness and hard work.

I am from laughing at just about anything,

And grabbing the car keys and going wherever the road takes us.

I am from sandy beaches, and long days on a dusty field

I am from my littles brothers, my friends, my relationships,

But most importantly,

I am from all of the effort I put in to build myself once again.