I wrote this in high school, hence all the high school references...I feel the part about various people gets a little lengthy, so please give me your thoughts on that.
Let’s make this a celebration:
Of rain pouring in the streets on the very day we meant to have a picnic,
of shaking our fists as snow drifts down in the middle of April,
of dust-veiled books with missing covers
and torn pages smelling of ancient bookshelves,
of pre-calculus problems you did just because you felt like doing some math.
Let’s make this a celebration of teachers shouting at classes that wouldn’t shut up,
of the folder that survived half a semester before dying of a broken heart,
of the class you couldn’t take because you needed another to graduate.
Let’s celebrate the cough-coughs and ha-has and ahems,
those stupid armpit noises,
and belches that were heard by undiscovered tribesmen in Africa,
who rated them as tens;
the crying and the hugging,
the laughter like the wailing of banshees,
the labored breathing, the gasps,
the singing in an out-of-key monotone,
the drumming on tables like rain on the rooftops,
the raya, ahavah, dod,
and love, eternal sun;
the clapping molto accelerando for having eaten our fill.
Let’s celebrate that girl whose constant refrain is, “Hang on a sec, I’m texting,”
the boy who wears black nail polish and eyeliner,
the football player who leans up against skin-toned lockers
just to watch the forms of birch trees passing by,
the prom queen who gazes around haughtily and condemns you to unpopularity
but all the while hides her stomach and fears she’s fat,
and the fact that you don’t know everything about any one of these people.
Let’s make this a celebration of life,
of all the shining bubbles we blow,
of incandescence, significance, seashells, eyelashes,
of coloring-book pages and 96 crayons,
of little annoyances we hate with a fiery passion,
the things we wish we could do but never try,
of chasing the moon,
of wonder,
and everything that makes this life a life.
