Young Writers Project is a creative, online community of teen writers and visual artists that started in Burlington in 2006. Each week, VTDigger publishes the writing and art of young Vermonters who post their work on youngwritersproject.org, a free, interactive website for youth, ages 13-19. To find out more, please go to youngwritersproject.org or contact Executive Director Susan Reid at sreid@youngwritersproject.org; (802) 324-9538.
When we encounter a setback or challenge, or even merely stagnation, it can be necessary to reflect on where our recent attentions and efforts have led us: toward a significant goal we have set, or away from it? Sometimes, we learn, we must make sacrifices for that aspiration, or discard it altogether for something that better aligns with our evolving values. But that spark that keeps us reaching skyward is ever-important – whatever our dream may be. This week’s featured poet, Quinn Brubaker of Shelburne, conveys the not-a-sprint-but-a-marathon that is the path toward achievement of her ambitions.
Chasing onward
Quinn Brubaker, 13, Shelburne
I chase this dream
with everything I have.
I want to be with it
every step of the way.
From the moment I first touched it
to where my fingertips grazed actual possibility,
to where my heart broke
into a million shards
at the edge of the end of the song.
I have felt
a lot of things.
I have loved
a lot of things.
A lot of people.
But nothing touches this.
I run after this
with my heart on my sleeve.
I chase it down with everything I have.
I race it,
follow it,
wander after it.
I dash for it,
I collide with it,
egged on by the briefest, sweetest hint
I taste
when I do this.
There is a moment
of thrill.
There is a moment
where I am in the sky.
There is a moment where I can’t stop smiling and
this is what I want to do,
where I want to be.
This is my passion.
I will fight for it.
I will do anything for it.
Dreams don’t chase you back.
Mine certainly doesn’t.
But I will prove I deserve this.
I will prove I can do this.
