That moment when you finish a book, its almost as if you are saying good by to so many friendships you created, so many memories you really never experienced. I have never finished reading a book feeling so filled with hope &inspiration as I did with this particular one. Snaps and applause to you Mrs. Stockett.

PHENOMENAL READ 

First Year poem

I was asked to share a poem

Maybe of community diversity and a memory

I’ll just share a little about me

Coming to APU was my dream

My parents thought it was far, my face would hardly be seen

My family is my everything but it was just time for me

The southern California sun and people who couldn’t stop smiling was calling

And so was

A community where my diversity seemed to actually follow me

Fell asleep with a silk wrap for my mane

Roommates asked why I wore it

And my ethnicity seemed to face me for the first time

Always the yellow skinned

Couldn’t tell if she was dark skinned

Or if she was the tan skin

Is her hair relaxed or straightened

See, coming to APU was my dream

Wednesday night Chapel became my source of peace

My bible contained highlighter streaks

Where God met me on the path he had placed me reassuring this is exactly where I was supposed to be

But Doubt sometimes caressed every positive thought that entered me

My moments of happiness were quickly shutdown by loneliness

And it broke me

 My weakness and insecurities opened the door for me

And I entered it slowly

But before it could immerse me

These words surrounded me

“He is jealous for me, love like a hurricane I am a tree bending beneath his love and mercy”

But at this point I wasn’t bending I was breaking

Lord the spirit is willing but the flesh was weak

And so he repaired me

Helping me remember this is exactly where he has called me

And so I placed my insecurities and fears behind

Trying my best not to let them jump in front of me

Yes, coming to APU was my dream nothing else could come between

But I was slightly Overwhelmed by this place called COLLEGE

Where responsibility was something you actually had a choice to hold on your own

Because parents were only there through the phone

Freedom was the theme and some let their freak flag ring

My RA became my source of maternity when my heart yearned for the one who birthed me

Girls on my hall became my little homes of nail polish and chick flick sanity

My alpha group became my family and everyone else in between kept my laughter going

I was asked to share a poem

Maybe of community diversity and a memory      

And so I chose a memory sprinkled with a little diversity and a lot about a community

A community where my heart can now rest assured that this is my source of security

So as you yourself embark on this journey weather it’s your first second third or your last embrace it

Embrace the people screaming at the top of their excitement because they are genuinely glad you are here

Embrace the 1am laughter and conversations that are better with an acoustic background

Embrace the random times of loneliness and ecstatic happiness

Embrace every memory difficult or easy to swallow because you will never experience what you are experiencing right now

Power of words

Do remember the first day of school?

You know, a little after you learned your teachers’ name

And the name of the kid who would become your temporary best friend

Do you remember what you learned?

The very first thing we learned in school was the Alphabet

123s and a whole lot of ABCS

I can’t help but wonder why was that the first thing we learned?

The alphabet, the key to the very English language itself

A B C D E F G

After the alphabet comes English

We learn the way to write in print and in cursive

To express our names with dots or hearts on our I’s

And then literature

The way a heart can become a main character in a story of despair

The way a gun can become the weapon of mass destruction to the mind

H I J K L M

Words

The power of words

Has the capability to capture us in stillness

Bring us to our knees

Cause our entire being to shake

And tears to fall from our very eyes

Words can hurt

They can cut deeper than the very skin itself

Chiseling away at bone structures and virtues

Causing lives to bleed

Words can be poison damaging and corrupting the most sensitive parts of a human being

Their hearts

Their minds

Even their lives

N O P Q R S

So why is it we abuse this gift of words

This power that every individual possess

A power so strong that even the mumble of them can be the rope around a teenager’s neck

A power so strong that a whisper can calm a raging storm

Or it can spread like wildfire and be the reason that a young girl looks in the mirror and the only thing that stares back is worthlessness

It can be the song to a restless child calming them to a peaceful abyss of dreams

Our words can be our own worst enemies

Along with our minds deception of our hearts

We feed ourselves lies

That there is no purpose for this life

That there is not a God whose very breath created our being

Or that someone else’s life is not worth experiencing

T U V W

Words can be an escape

Leaving this world of murder and rape

Entering a place where words aren’t used and abused

But guarded like treasures that our mouths are endowed with

And when we say I love you we mean it as if the very words were heaven-sent

All of our lives we are surrounded by words

The first ones we speak

The first ones spoken to us

Words to stand by

Words to live by

Hebrews 4:12-13 says, “For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”

X Y

Proverbs 12:18 says, “There is one whose rash words are like sword thrusts, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.”

So let us all take role of the wise

Let our mouths spew words of wisdom

And healing

Not of ignorance and impairment

Instead may we speak prayers of psalms

Asking father, “Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips!”

And Z