Idk what I was doing with this poem, but it was 1am when I wrote it and I feel that this represents my journey through schooling in general. Especially now that I have graduated, I feel like I should share this somewhere, here seems like a good spot. I don't know who needs to hear this message from my rough attempt at a poem, but here it is.

A Message to the 'Smart Kid'
Hello youthful spirit, it has been some time
So much has changed since you first awoke
The promise of intellect and pure happiness was still fresh
There was still hope
People had hope
Because you were the ‘smart kid’

In its promise this gift bestowed a chance for opportunity
It gave others pride
It gave ourselves pride
But underlying it all were the questions

What if I wasn’t the best?
What if I failed?
Why aren’t I on top, I’m the smart one aren’t I?

You were fearful, and you were frightened
You had this growing sense of dread
That all you were was going to be lost
The moment you receive that paper with a 0

You had just wanted to be successful
You had wanted to be seen as successful
Instead you were about to be seen as lazy, incompetent, and dumb
Why did you get these grades?
Why did you slip up?
This isn’t like you, you should try harder next time

It isn’t about the 500 times you scored well on an assessment
It isn’t about the times you came first place in some competition
It isn’t about the times you received awards or recognition
No for us it is always about the one time we failed

The one time we weren’t perfect
The one time we failed those around us
The one time that brought us down and fractured our façade
We would brand ourselves as fools
We didn’t deserve to call ourself smart
We would internalise our questions, and risk not understanding
Because thats not what smart kids do

Smart kids have the answers
Smart kids don't have to try
School is easy for the smart kids
Smart kids have a bright future
Smart kids don't waste their potential

But as I said, times have past
We have grown
We have learned
We’ve had the good days and the bad
We’ve had the scores which weren’t perfect all the time
And we are still healing

We now understand
We don’t always have to be perfect
We don’t always have to be the best
We don't always have to be on top
We can be satisfied that we tried
We can know that our best is good enough
And we can be someone, without the ‘smart kid’ label