Trailblazers, Trendsetters, and Tree-Shakers.

From hopeful acorns to invigorating forests.

No matter how the future may look, its harbingers get brighter and brighter with each passing generation.

As someone who is somewhere between first generation and second generation, I take value in championing those that have the goal of completing their college education to benefit themselves and others. That's why when given the opportunity to perform for a room of first generation students and those that are there to support them, I jumped at the chance.

I even left with a book for my son to read, so that's a welcome bonus.

This set, much like others, started with a couple love poems then went into other poems with introspective themes.

Below is a poem I wrote a couple days prior for this event. It touches on resilience and what it may mean to be human while pushing through expectations set on us.

Hope it connects with you in some way!

P.S. Tons of love to Monephia & College Visions for this opportunity!

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Human Nature Is More Than Science Says It Is.

No one ever says to consult a doctor before you try to hit the ground running.

It’s assumed you have the guts to do it.

That you’re made of the right stuff.

You already hurdled up to heights unknown and transformed your family tree

into a wooden skyscraper,

leaving elevators for the future

when all you had was a flight of stairs.

It’s assumed that because your parents made a mine shaft of family jewels

as a foundation for you with

their hands and fists,

by evolution you emerged from the womb with knuckles of steel.

That the hurricane winds of change don’t bother you

because you’re a stone monument of their perseverance.

That every fiber of your skin is a bulletproof shield,

your soul a sword to wield,

your mind the sharpest in the field,

and your dreams are

made of gold.

But you’re only

human.

Your amber brainwaves of grain won’t feed anyone

unless you feed yourself first,

they’ll swallow you whole

under the weight of the pressure you put on yourself

to be the diamond everyone expects you to be.

The sky is the limit

until sleepless nights turn your ears into exhaust pipes,

and the smoke coming from them surrounds you as a penthouse cloud,

that sky then is a memory foam mattress

reminding you of the stomping grounds you laid to rest.

You’re only

human.

It’s in your nature

to want to use all that daylight saved

to add time to your life,

because we don’t all have the same 24 hours

no matter how often they say we do.

You want to create fire,

you want to find water in space,

you want to impact earth each time you hit the ground running,

you want to inhale tornadoes,

and spit out rainforests,

and breathe lightning,

you want to be elemental,

ethereal,

extraordinary,

the epitome of life itself;

and at any given moment,

at your best,

at your worst,

even at your most regular setting,

you

already

are.

You are able to channel canals of energy from each planet in reach.

You are a galaxy in a bottle.

You are a universe of poems in motion.

You are a conversation with God.

You are a lifetime’s supply of turning broken ground into wine.

You are

human.