The monotony of school,
The anxiety drug.
We don’t swallow a pill,
or sip medicine, but our routine is the addiction.

The machine spurts out a number we are assigned too.
We are simplified to our results;
how well we do on standardized tests
How much busy work we can complete.

“Don’t stress about college,
but if you don’t get an A on this paper, you’re a bad writer.”
It echoes through the halls and turns every corner.

We are not told sail around the world like Odysseus;
we read that freshman year.
We are not encouraged to go protest,
instead we are lectured on them in class.
Exploration means an app on the computer for a math problem.

We are given a formula for determination and resilience.
We are told to discover, and that is our discovery.
We are driven by the list of activities to put on our transcript.
Every little thing we do will be boxed into 50 words maximum,
shipped off and
analyzed by a highly specialized team.

We are expected to fit on 3 pieces of paper.
Our entire life span, though not old,
is crammed and manipulated
to be what other people want to hear.

Now, I challenge you.
Read a book,
run a marathon,
go watch ted-talks for fun,
or perhaps take a nap.
But whatever you do,
do not include it on your common app.