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Respect to you may be showing good manners at the dinner table
Or keeping eye contact with someone to signal they have your full attention
Even saying “please” or “thank you”

“If you could have one do-over in life, what would it be?”

My mind suddenly starts whirling up moments that brought upon me embarrassment along with tinted rosy cheeks plastered onto my face 

The day was slowly turning itself over and giving into the cold lustrous hands we call night.

More customers come rushing in.

Squeaking the doors a bit more with each push.

My mother waltzes around from table to booth.

The moment my upper eyelid connects to my lower lid

Is the moment all my thoughts come rushing at me,

Each taking a jab at my brain,

One after the other.

But most of the jabs attack me in the form of a question,

Beneath a student’s daunting, distressed-looking exterior,

Underneath all the folds of night studying and restless sleeps,

There’s a pulse of goodness within 

That arises when a student takes action with their heart.

If not now, when?

When will humankind come to the realization that we don’t have a planet B to go to,

When will we open our eyes to the destruction we’re still continuing to cause,