If I said all of the stuff that I think
People wouldn’t even recognize me
But after being in a place for eight years
You have to be what people know
And what people have come to expect

People claim to be “smart”
But their judgments are other people’s judgments
Even the teacher’s label people
Because the teacher is a “teacher”
And the child is a “child”

I read other students’ writing and I think
“God, how melodramatic!”
I don’t want to be fake, to write stuff I don’t mean
So I am just writing what I am thinking

Everyday I watch people who don’t know they are being watched
And I listen to what they say, and I think
“Hear yourself!”

But I am not smarter than any of them
Or wiser than any of them
I am not really different from any of them
I am just making my own judgments