My Name Is Leah Waughtal
Yes, The 'GH' Makes An F Sound. No My Middle Name Is Not 'Blue Berry'. And Yes, Leah, As In Biblical, As In The First Unwanted Wife Of Jacob.
I Like Cupcakes, Cadavers, And Drinking Tea.
I Don't Like Losing Arguments, Or Being Told I'm Being Indignant.
I Make Ice Cream For A Living, And Pray For Rain Everyday.

Mirrors Are My Best Enemy. The Longer I Stare, The More I Hate, So Someday I Hope I Can Stop Looking.
I Write Like I Have Something To Say, But I Really Don't.
I Want To Be Brave, But I Don't Really Know What That Means.
My Language Is Filled With Terms Like "Don't" "Can't" "Always". These Verbs, These Tenses Of Past And Future, As If I Have A Clue. As If My Palm Prints Would Last Longer Than A Few Seconds In The Wet Concrete That Is This Moment.

My Name Is Leah Waughtal
I Pretend That I Can Speak Italian, And I Bite My Nails When I Get Nervous.
I Memorize Poems, So I Can Act As If I Have Important Things To Say, When Silence Swells Around Us.
I Miss The Ocean, And I Wear High Heels Because I'm Afraid Of Feeling Small.

My Name Is Leah Waughtal,

And I Just Want To Be Remembered.

Hi I'm Leah Waughtal. Yeah, The GH Makes An F Sound, Its Kind Of Weird. What Do You Mean I'm Not On The Class List? So There Are Two Freshman Biology's? And The Rooms Are Side By Side? Both First Block? And There Is A Typo On My Schedule... So I Have To Go All The Way Down To The Counseling Office, But What If I Miss The Bus To Central, And All My Friends Are In This Class, And I-

Stop.

I Know That Look. I've Been There. That Scared ****-less Smile. That Cocky Half Step Into Adolescence. You Were Just A Big Fish, In A Small Pond, But This. This Is An Ocean, And You Feel So, So Little Again. I Know 'Freshman Advice' Is Trending On Twitter, And You've Seen Every Jab At "Knowing Your Place", And "Staying Out Of The Way". We Act Like We Run This School, But We Really Don't. And You Can Thank Our Administrators For Teaching Us That. We're Still Learning. And You Have Every Right To Remind Us Of That. Like The Human Body That Recycles Itself, Every Skin Cell, And Drop Of Blood, Regenerated, A High School Does The Exact Same Thing. Every Four Years, We Are Recycled. After We Graduated As Seniors, There Will Be No Evidence Of Our Existence, So You, Yes You, Are Our Legacy.

Maybe You Don't Want All To Be Doctors, Or Lawyers, But I Can Meet Eyes Out There, And Say Its Safe. We All Wanna Make A Lot Of Money Someday. So Make It Easy On Yourself, Put The Effort In Now. The Path Starts Here, Inside This Room. You Were Built For Both Beauty, And Greatness. Give The Seam & Stitch Of Your DNA Something To Hold On To. You've Got Wonder Tattooed Into Your Skin, You've Got Valor In Your Fingertips,  You've Got Power Lining The Insides Of Your Pockets. You've Got It In You. Don't Let Anyone Tell You That You Don't.

We, You&i;, Are The Middle Children Of History, Raised By Television Sets To Believe We Will Be Rock-stars, And Millionaires Someday. So No One Better Mess With Us, Because There Aren't Enough Hours In The Day To Finish All The Dreams We Will Accomplish. So Look Up, & Remember These Stars, Because Sparks Meet Inside You, And They Died To Become You.

And Yes, There Will Be Times When You'll Swell With Self Made Pressure. But Believe Me, There Won't Be Any Popping. You Were Made To Bend Without Breaking. Stop Being Terrified Of Your Own Potential, You've Got Undiscovered Talents Waiting Inside Yourself. Don't Bite Your Tongue Too Many Times, Or You Might Swallow Yourself Whole. Speak Up For What You Believe In. Don't Be Afraid Of Being Noticed. There Is A Place For You Here.

& Any Time That You Feel Like There Isn't, I'm Here. Find Me In A Hallway, If You Need Someone To Tell You That Everything Will Be Okay. Or If You Just Want Somebody To Hold Your Hand For A Second. Or Even If You Just Need Help With Your Physics Assignment.

This Isn't The End. No, This Is Something Else Entirely.

This Is Just The Beginning.