In the past year, I took a pause on my spoken word career to be in this multicultural group that advocated the end to all forms of discrimination *breathes* I graduated tonight. This year has been a year of sacrifices, ups, downs, ups, downs, food, tears, laughs, everything. One year ago, I was sad and angry I had to stop being on the DC Youth Slam Team. So much so, that for a while it kept me from being fully involved in OUDC. Now, 12 months, a summer journey, tears, laughs, and many speakers later I’m sad again. I have a slam tomorrow, to get back onto DCYST. I am picking up exactly where I left off last year. This hurts, I will miss these guys so much. I have 5 months left in DC before I leave for Wisconsin. Whilst packing up after graduation, I told my classmate Zach I will miss him etc. He said “You still have 5 months you know, haha. I’ll be around” and I said “But 5 months goes by fast.” Then he said “Only if you want them to.” Tonight, I realized that I've always been too stubborn/hardheaded to appreciate what have for the moment, not what I have now. OUDC taught me some tough lessons, but also grew me the fuck up. OUDC was a hard transition, but I’m glad I did it. I will miss them so much.