New Beginnings

New beginnings are like brief stutters in the steady heartbeat of your life

Wandering the same streets you have since childhood, knowing that things never really change here, they only shift

You dangle permanently on the edge of the inevitable

Awaiting answers, always moving forward

The reluctance of September sinks into your bones

Feelings as mixed as the weather, between anxiety and craving monotony

You ditch last year’s papers, promising to be more organised

A false sense of security in empty three-ring binders

You remember what it felt like to be new here,

Dragged along in the riptide current of a scuffed hallway, tiny and insignificant

Twisting a combination lock like your life depended on it, losing your change to the vending machine by the theatre

You know where you fit now, but sometimes the hordes of people still feel daunting

Your final victory lap is only just starting

Racing against the clock to get in every application, to tour every school

You rush towards adulthood with reckless abandon, forgetting that being young is all you’ve ever known

The months blur into nothing, and time becomes the enemy

Journeys begin and end in the same place: a scarred but sacred stage

No matter how divided, you walk together towards a new chapter

A group of people bound forever by the time-worn path they chose to follow.