middle school is a gauntlet

My Dear Advisees

middle school is a gauntlet:

as you push yourself to move forward,

you seem to remember how much easier

it was just yesterday,

you feel how hard it is

to keep your eye on the future coming at you,

to keep true to the best of who you are,

while doubts and mistakes and exhaustion

hit at you, work to hold you back,

the gauntlet does its best to deny you

the rightness and the power

that is your birthright,

as your advisor, I hope to help you

persevere, to find your way forward,

to help you deny the deniers,

to break through to the best within you

that is who you are

when you will not be denied.

by Henry H. Walker

September 7, ‘17