16 summers spent at home.
My dark bedrooms tempting me with comfort,
And betraying me with loneliness.
The weeks leading up to school became slow crawls
Through cabin fever.

My favorite word was no.

No to festivals.
No to summer camp and sleepovers.
No to birthday parties and bonfires and beach days.

No is dangerous. The more I said it, the easier it was. No was sad, but misery loved my company. No gave me a pair of jade-colored glasses.

Yes started to look like a barbed-wire fence
One foot off the ground.
If I could only jump over it,
I'd reach the greenery of the other side...

But what if I tripped?

So, when my friend asked if I wanted to go to a bonfire on the last day of school,
I got nervous.
My stomach knotted up
Like the headphones in my bedroom.
My safe, dark bedroom...

I said yes.

Then I said yes to late-night adventures.
Yes to journalism camp 3 hours away.
Yes to grad parties,
And movie nights,
And dates.

Yes is powerful.
'
Yes was meeting people from California.
Yes was laughing in Walmart on a Tuesday.
Yes was a bouncy house,
And dying my hair rainbow at 2 A.M.,
And holding hands with friends
When walking across the street.

Yes was the 17th summer.
The best summer of my life.

The summer that made me believe in yes.

Yes gave me new experiences,
Closer friendships,
Good times.

If I know nothing else,
I know I was happy.

Saying yes is not easy
When all you know
Is no.

But no is a slow,
Comfortable
Death.

I chose life.
And it was the best choice
I've ever made.

Learning to say yes
Was learning about my city,
My friends,
And myself.

I love all of these things dearly.

I believe in saying yes.

Yes to festivals.
Yes to summer camp and sleepovers.
Yes to birthdays and bonfires and beach days.

Yes to my city,
And my friends,
And myself.

Yes to life.