#the poem I read was Solitude by Ella Wilcox which probably set off alarm bells to my teachers lol

[redrobin-detective]

Its so amazing the little moments that impact your life. My high school did Poetry Out Loud when I was a junior - a very painfully shy, weird, quiet student who read books and didn't really have friends. I was always good at memorization and, as a student who thrived on perfection, I searched for hours on the website for the perfect poem.

In the end, I chose one that now isn't one I've kept up with but sometimes bits of the dialogue come to me even though its been over a decade since then. I won my class's competition but refused to go in front of the school (due to aforementioned shyness). So it didn't help my public speaking skills but it did give me a life long love of poetry. I've now memorized dozens of poems. I have stacks of poetry books on my shelf. I have poems hanging on my walls and tattooed on my skin.

Just, idk, there's something so special about how certain things come your way out of the blue and turn into something that becomes a part of you. Ordinary events stitching together parts of your soul.