=bWceh_p_d] j[[d fh[]dWdYo - Teens in Print

Life is too shortBy Keisha Lorna Dauphin // Contributing WriterQuo StatusLife is too shortTo be dwelling on the badAnd not accepting the good that comes within and to you.Life is too short not to push yourselfTo the highest limit of your ability.Life is too short not to realize that you can hold the keyTo the world’s future and become the world’s greatest.Life is too short to allow yourself to get upsetAbout the small things in life.Life is too short not to say your prayers at night.Life is too short not to feel blessedTo know you are able to wake up every dayTo see another light of day and your loved ones.Life is too short not to tell your loved onesthe three little words I l-o-v-e youbecause tomorrow may not promise you.So accept the good, push yourself,Realize that you are the world’s future,Don’t let the small things get to you,Talk to God in your prayers,Know that you are blessed and that people love you.Life is too short; it’s like a clock, tic-toc.It’s ticking and ticking,But one day the battery will stop and die.The new life will be the beginning of a beginning.TsunamiBy Pablo Silva // Contributing WriterBlazing hot sweat rolled down my backA cloudless sky was at reach from my palm’s viewMy eyes centered on the sun as it stood above my headSummer’s end sneaked around the cornerBut its endless heatFooled me to think it would never cease.Milky sand grains covered my toesBeach balls rolled back n’ forthChildren’s castles were made and later destroyedClear waters waved in my thoughtsIt was supposed to be a beautiful dayAnd until that moment, indeed it was.The moment the earth shookLoud voices suddenly began to riseAnd footsteps tumbled the groundI looked aroundRight, left, up, downWhere had the commotion come from?The sun blinded me from the truthWhen the photons in my eyes reassembled the imageA shock traveled to my heartMaking it pump furiously in my chest.A desert ahead of me laidContent faces ran from my presenceThe air dragged my body forwardThe ocean rapidly seemed to disappearI looked upon the never ending horizonAnd its line had ascended greatly.At that momentI refused to run like all the othersI refused to avoid its magnificent movesThe winds pushed me backwards with a tremendousforceSprinkles of icy water splashed against my skinA great calamity I was bound to face.Shadows covered the surface of my dreadAn enormous wall of wetness surrounded meAnd with a blink, I was no longer visible to the eyes ofmenEven God could not spot me from the heavens above.I gasped for air in the salty waters of the oceanBut there was none to be foundAnd with that last thought in mindI drowned myself in its eternal beauty.By Matt Kimm // Staff WriterMatt is: Escapin’ this whackness where people consider blackness to bea form of religious practice, but the fact is, we lack it: that resilient abilityto bounce back, and still walk some moral path. It’s ridiculous theway we’ve cracked reality and still lasted, by forsakin’ our principles forinsecurity, then attemptin’ to mask it, but I’m askin’ while we essentiallyare killin’ each other, placin’ one another in caskets, will our action countas a unanticipated reaction? In essence, can we lessen ourselves andsay we’re countin’ blessings, when all you’re really countin’ is the deadchildren that weren’t you, so you say you learned your lesson? Can weexpect to, because we’re adolescents, be excused from our pretensionsof being little slices of heaven, when we’re directin’ all positive force theopposite way, with all possible deflections and complainin’ when we go toassemblies about premeditated crime prevention? And we claim misunderstandingswhen blame is pointed in our direction, sayin’ “well, I didn’tdo it,” as if that places you above the rest, then. And tensions betweenraces fuel the locomotive of peace’s recession, but all we’re really madat is the muddled color of our own reflection. And I don’t claim this tobe my profession, I’m just carryin’ this message of declension to theassembly on knowledge that not all youth are attendin’. So, even thoughwe’re black, it doesn’t mean we have to blend in with the dark, but standin stark realization that we are the light descendin’. We ought to be commended,and mentioned in positive ways, besides the “statistics claimthat we might not get a pension.” I’m just sayin’ that this is an issue thatMatt is feelin,’ but I gotta add this, aim for more than what’s expected,’cuz you weren’t called to be “quo-status.”