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By Bekkah Lambert, Winooski

Because I am graduating this year it finally hit me that I'd have to leave and I had a crisis about it, so I wrote this piece.

I used to be embarrassed to say that I am from Winooski. I would lie, hide, do whatever I could to disguise it and point out every flaw I could to try to distance myself if I were ever found out. 

Now, as we are approaching these last few months of high school, where soon I will actually have to leave, I don’t want to. It has recently dawned on me how much this school and community has had an impact on who I am and who I will become once my tassel goes right to left and I exit these doors once and for all.

So, I suppose I’m writing this as a thank you. Thank you to the student body, teachers, administration, everybody who has seen me cry and heard me say hundreds of times that all I want to do is fail and drop out, but then took me back over and over, and helped me succeed. 

Thank you for the laughs, the yelling, and the one detention I’ve ever received. Thank you for giving me the space I needed to bloom as a youth leader, writer, and as an actual human being. Thanks for having me these last 13 years. I have this fear of being forgotten, so I hope I’ve made my mark.

And even though I must leave, lastly, thank you for making me proud to say that Winooski is my home.
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