For years I searched for an outlet to really express myself in a way that made me happy but no matter how hard I looked, I couldn’t seem to do it. I’d attempt to paint or draw, but I’d end up more frustrated than anything because it never came out the way I envisioned. I never liked sports so that wasn’t an option, and I was a very introverted kid. Trying to make me talk about my problems was easier said than done and I was stuck in this state where I couldn’t get my feelings out in a fun, healthy way and it was frustrating.
Then one day, smack dab in the middle of term 1 in 9th grade, I found it. Local poet Sheri-D Wilson was invited to work with everyone in grade 9 at my school and I strongly believe this was a turning point in my life. I’d been interested in poetry in 8th grade but I was never serious about it, but then I started writing in grade 9, drawing inspiration from my own life and individuals around me and I couldn’t have been happier. Months later, I was on YouTube watching poetry performances and I came across “For Teenage Girls” by Clementine von Radics, and I fell in love. I’m an overzealous person. I can talk about things for days and think about things that’ll continue to excite me days later and every time I watch this video, it’s like the first time all over again. The feelings I get from this performance are like no other. It inspired me to write my own piece for my grade 9 graduation and perform it with two of my friends and it still inspires me to write to this day. I constantly tell people if it weren’t for poetry, I wouldn’t be as happy as I am now, and this is where it all started. While her performance of the poem is different from the one in her book, “Mouthful of Forevers“, it’s still just as inspiring. I hope you watch this and feel just as inspired as I do when I watch it.
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