Tomorrow is the day
I have imagined
For nearly
Two decades.

I am almost two decades old.

I never really pictured myself
In the ruffled, black
Window drape
And
Cardboard diamond.
Standing with "all my friends"
While everyone I love washes
Me to my diploma with tears of
Pride and joy.
I pictured the end.

Naive.
Of course.

But at six years old
Everyone made high school
Out to be
Life
And then life goes on
Hiatus
While we work our dream jobs
Raise kids and
Die.

Ironic.

It is always those preachers of
" Practicality"
Who make that dream
A goal.

Youth is idolized and coveted.
But like the
North Star
It was
Ignorance
Who led me through the darkness
Of my adolescence.
Not beauty or
Vitality.
Blind Faith and
Forced hope
In all the
Inevitable failures
That would seemingly lead me
Through a life time of
Social experiments.
Or as society prefers,

"friendships."

Ironic.

As it was I was being tested
More than I was testing.

Tomorrow
I will be graduating with
176
Cardboard diamonds
And of most of them
I only know
Their names.

Some led me to believe that they could sparkle
But in the end
Couldn't stomach the
Entirety of a mine.

So tomorrow we will be handed
Paper telescopes
Through which it is
Advised
To look towards our
Futures.

Cardboard diamonds will not look.

They will wipe their brows.
Flatten and restrict
Their futures to a
Five dollar plastic
Frame
And hang it on a wall as
Eggshell or beige
As the next 40 years of their
Hiatus.

Some led me to believe that they were pearls.
But in the end
Just couldn't bare the patience of
Becoming.

I am no cardboard diamond.
But I am not quite a pearl.

The day after tomorrow
I will be the same
Grain of sand
That I have been
For the past
18 years.

And for this,
I am truly
Grateful.