Def Poet Meilani Clay

Being

Starting with middle school, the most exciting time of any school year for me has always been looking forward to the next one. In 7th grade, I dreamt of being immensely cooler because I was going to be an 8th grader, and obviously 8th graders were so much cooler than 7th graders, minus the same difficulty of fitting in socially and fashionably. When I was in high school, each year brought its own new "perks". During my first year in high school, I was just excited about being a freshman. During my sophomore year, I either terrorized or befriended the clueless freshmen. In my junior year, I was able to occupy the "top" lockers and punk the underclassmen. During my senior year, I was excitedly awaiting the sweet vision of graduation day, college acceptance letters, buying plane tickets across country, etc. Fast forwarding to now, my life revolves around semesters, exams, long night of studying, and forming study groups that never seem fully beneficial. At the end of finals week, there are no breaks because I am planning for the next semester. I go through the hassles of choosing classes, searching websites to find the best professors, and dealing with numerous advisors that all suggest different classes for me to take… but it is my choice to decide what classes I want and need to take to fulfill my own educational and personal goals. All the decisions, stress, and incoming knowledge are factors that keep me focused and going for the goal. I ignore everything that I learned from world religions and Sunday school about "being in the present moment", and "letting go and letting God". For me, life is exciting because I imagine that I have so much more to look forward to.