“When You Were Younger.”
You have your present, your past, and your future.
In the past, the world was enormous, and there were many things you didn’t know about.
Like all the planes and the birds in the sky,
And the fact that there’s a whole other world in the ocean,
And in our friends’ lives.
It all seems incredible,
When you were younger.
You thought that rules were games,
And all your toys were buildings.
You were a small, little human.
With a big, open mind.
You had yet to learn everyone’s name, how to love, and how to treat others around you.
It all seems impossible to remember,
Because you were younger.
In your present, the world is still so big.
You are learning about how we are so small..
That we are not the only ones here.
You’re starting to run, when they’ve only shown you how to crawl.
While the world under you is changing, sometimes you might feel lost.
But remember to look at all the people around, they are a lot like you, still learning too.
Many roads you have yet to cross.
This is the time in your life where you’re learning everyone’s names, and trying to keep up!
Time is flying by, next thing you know, you think you’ve grown up.
You’re learning that although you can love someone one way, it may be different than how you love another.
You’re learning that even though we look a little different, we are made the same.
We’re all someone’s sister or somebody’s brother.
It all seems impossible to grasp,
It is because you were younger.
And then you have your future.
The world is big.
The world will feel small.
You will have seen so many places.
You will have felt so many emotions.
You will have had so many ideas.
And so many devotions.
This is a time in your life where you will look behind you, and wonder where it all went.
You will remember all the silly ways you’ve had your time and money spent.
You will see yourself in younger people, and tell them all your crazy stories from when you were their age.
And you’ll remind them, to not take time or people for granted.
You will have learned to let go of rage.
Times will seem like they were much simpler,
Because they were…
When you were younger.
This is the time in your life you will have known how to love and understand what hurts..
You will have known many types of people; black, white, red, brown, yellow, green, short, tall, thin, wide, with one eye, two eyes, red eyes, and blue eyes.
You will have remembered that one kid that treated another differently because they didn’t look like them.
And will have known although it was wrong, you knew what was right.
And you’ll regret staying quiet,
and not knowing then, that it was also your fight.
You will think about all the people that changed your life for better or worse.
You will talk about all the people you’ve ever loved, lightly or wholeheartedly.
And you will teach others to always treat everyone with respect and dignity.
You will understand that in order to move on, you will sometimes have to forgive without receiving an apology, you will have to fight when you feel your weakest, and even though your heart is the size of your fist..
You can fill it up with the entire universe, and still have room for another to fit.
All the things you think you know now, just didn’t matter much then…
When you were younger.
-N.D.A 11.20.2024
