Goodbye Glance
With an air of finality, the locker door slammed shut.
She rounded the corner past the brand new machines;
foreign and full of technology, they reminded her why she was leaving.
Classrooms once packed with bodies called out to her as she passed,
begging to be graced with a glance from a parting student.
They reminded her of freshman health and interior design,
courses that were light years away in her mind.
In her rounds, she noticed an eerie stillness in the hallway
that was so typically full of life.
The barrenness unsettled her.
Breeze from the outdoors reached her before her eyes could find the exit
although they were already somewhat clouded from the heaviness,
heaviness that lingered, for she knew not when she would return
Maybe as soon as next fall
Maybe never
Maybe the thought of either of these was what stopped her before she departed.
She stood in the threshold of the portal to the outside world,
glancing back at the only world she ever knew.
The floodgate holding the memories she had tried so desperately to suppress finally gave
as she stared longingly at the halls
that would never again feel the same;
When she came back, she would no longer belong with the rest of them.
She would be an outsider.
The warmth of summer and adventure beckoned to her,
tickling her neck with temptation.
But she decided the place that housed her the most over the last four years deserved one parting look.
Her glassy eyes wandered and fixated on the art room:
her second home, and the place she absorbed the most.
Like a punch in the gut, it hit her suddenly:
It was more than just practical education.
It was education on life.
Lessons learned outside the curriculum were far superior to those in it.
It was then, finally contented, that she could let go.
Bounding down the steps into the sunlight, she beamed.
The future awaited her
and she would greet the uncertainty with open arms.
this is beautiful.