2018 back-to-school contest: 'A fresh start' by Vivian Santos
We asked our readers to write a poem or a piece of creative writing about "a fresh start" for their chance to win an amazing back-to-school haul. Here is one of the entries, which has not been edited
A world filled with endless opportunity in front of my eyes
but for some reason I can’t summon the courage to put my foot out the front door
There are days when I can’t find the sun, even though it sits patiently for me right outside my room
Over the years,
I’ve banged my head across the walls, not out of insanity but to try and make some noise
I’ve grown to overthink until it feels like I am the last person in the universe
Or until the entire universe seems no greater than the space between my bed and the light switch
The price of existence gets higher every day,
But tomorrow will be different, for tomorrow is a fresh start.
I will always be a woman of wounds but tomorrow, my scars represent the wars I’ve survived
The world has always been a cruel place for me
But tomorrow will be different, for tomorrow is a fresh start.
Tomorrow, I choose to see the beauty that the world has to offer,
How the ocean refuses to stop kissing the shoreline no matter how many times its sent away
Or how we put the star in starting
over and
over and
over again
Or how the sun still manages bursting out glorious rays of light even after constant state of darkness
I’ve hidden within my four walls of darkness for so long
But tomorrow will be different, for tomorrow is a fresh start.
I,
like the sun,
pledge never to go dormant,
never to keep this fire within me.