The school bell blared
Signalling the end of everything
And we poured out of the building
Like bees from a beehive
Chattering and whooping for the end of elementary

We weren’t like little children anymore
But we didn’t realise just how young and wild we still were
Oblivious to the freedom that we still held in our hands
Not knowing that before long, we would lose it all

We were like the rain desperate to fall out of the clouds
Living on the edge, waiting for a chance
To fall down recklessly

Our lives were laid out in front of us
In turmoil, waiting to be pulled back to shore
Wanting to be taken control of, awaiting instruction

All of it was ahead
In a sea of endless possibilities

We wanted to grow up
We wanted to experience all the love and wonder and joy that seemed to come with maturity
What we didn’t know was that:
The fears we felt as children shrink in comparison with the ones as we grow older
The stress grows and doubles and triples until you can’t even stand under the weight
The grief is deeper and it shatters your heart and your soul and everything that makes you human
Until there’s no knowing what’s left
The pain is intense and sharp, it cuts you like a knife
And the monsters that hid under your bed, that your parents soothed away
When you’re grown, they still lurk in the shadows
And they tell you to run, so you do
Then tell you to try and escape
But even when you do run, you run as fast as you possibly can
Your demons will always catch up with you
You’ll never be able to leave them behind

That afternoon,
The sky split open
The rain fell in flat droplets from the vast murky heavens
Spilling God’s endless tears onto our leaden shoulders
We couldn’t see a thing
But we clasped our dripping hands tightly together
And formed a chain of soaked silhouettes

We ran like maniacs to the sodden football field
Tramped our sneakers in the mud
And let
Ourselves
Go
We twirled and jumped and sang at the top of our lungs
Ignoring the bewildered glances of onlookers
We screamed and laughed and chased each other
As strands of hair stuck to our sweaty foreheads
We ran
We ran and we ran and felt on top of the world
As we danced in the pouring rain
In the last hour of our innocence

“I’m growing up,”
That’s what I screamed.
“I’m growing up, and soon I’ll have a job, and my own family, and infinite freedom, and I’ll be an adult!”

But I don’t want to grow up anymore?I want to forget all of it
I want to go back to that day in the rain,
When everything was still perfect