as you change, you can really remain the same

 Middle School, and You

middle school:

developmental change rushes at you,

as the child within you reaches toward the adult,

you gain new powers of understanding and acting upon the world,

they fill you like Bruce Banner becoming The Hulk,

the challenge is to stay true to continuity of self,

to the person you know yourself to be,

who has been with you since your first thoughts,

social media and relationships can easily 

twist you away from that, 

and you can lose your way,

you can do well when friends, 

family, school, opportunities, 

yourself, 

affirm you, 

when you share enthusiasms,

such as your love for horses, sports, drama, singing,

when others then know you and you then know them,

and you can then know yourself,

and it feels right, for it is right,

like an idea that's always been with you,

you should use your powers for the good, 

for others and for yourself,

you should not compare and find yourself wanting,

do not think you should fix something about yourself,

something that is really just right as it is,

do not break the continuity with who you really are,

how ironic that as pattern increasingly reveals itself

in your thinking and in your feeling,

when math, literature, science, art, writing,

help you perceive the rules the universe plays by,

rules that you can know and use,

that then you should lose your own basic pattern, 

for even a short while,

instead, be true to yourself, to the joyous kid within you,

to the one who likes yourself, who loves yourself,

who holds true to both the kid and the adult within,

who is as thrilled by others' brilliance as by your own,

be constant to who you know yourself to be,

so that as you change, you really remain the same,

and you are just what you and the world needs.

by Henry H. Walker

August 7, ‘24