Lucky 13

I can’t wait to leave home.

This is what everyone’s saying

The cracked record replaying

The message we’re laying down 

As we exit this town

But I can’t relate

I’m having an internal debate

Leaving 

Makes me feel as safe

As sitting shotgun in a car driven by Amanda Bynes

I've been looking into our graduation

And what did I find?

We are the class of 2013

This dulls the sheen

Of this whole diploma-tic scene

There’s no number cursed like ours

Once I exit this stage it’ll get bizarre

The earth will implode

We’ll immigrate to Mars

Creating a neighborhood in the stars

When we don’t know our non-milky way

What I’m trying to say

Is that I’m terrified that things won’t stay the same

We’re going too far away 

Where no one knows our names

But then memories of Syosset pulse through my veins

And the intangible explains

That we might not be lucky

But we are smart

We've learnt the art of following a heart

We studied revolutions and how they start

In phys ed we defied painful strides

And flew across fields like darts

In bio we did dissections

In history we explored elections

How to mend society’s imperfections

We glimpsed into our reflections

And in health we played our hands 

and became fans of introspection

Syosset was an infection of a direction

We found where we going and nothing stopped us

We faced tragedy but nothing dropped us

This class survived asbestos, 9/11, and the Jersey Shore

We saw injustice and it left us wanting more

We read books as heavy as lead

And thread concepts like the IRS and biceps

We dove into depths of morality

We recognized the value to avert your eyes

And realize that a pretty face has no place above your personality

We showed reality the door and did more than anyone imagined we could do

We rocked that purell during swine flu

And we grew

And grow

And we know 

That the ability to show is just as great as to tell

We witnessed war and hell

And when we fell

We recovered from the trauma

We didn't cry to Mama

Or revel in the drama 

For we understand 

Crevices in the land only make green hills

So beautiful that they instill thousands of thrills

The memory from these four years fills us

Which a rush

When something is wrong we refuse to be hushed

And we might be leaving home but home is not leaving us

You will always be a brave

You will always have the courage to save

Someone on the run from treachery

You can change where you’re going 

But not where you’re from 

And because I am from Syo

I will be brilliant, not dumb

We will hum beauty into the silence of oppression

We will survive recessions

Depressions

And obsessions

Because we know how to question

I have a confession

I've sat through thousands of classes

But I've only learned one lesson

’13 might not be lucky

But it’s lucky for us

Because we made it that way

Because we have a lust for innovation

Deliberation 

And creation

And I hope you’ll use every moment as inspiration

To be a deviation from the ordinary

Because we are extraordinary

We are the generation 

That’ll revolutionize our nation

And this is not a graduation

But an invitation from the future

That you cannot defer

So congratulations

We are lucky 13

Today is our formation

Each conversation is an oration

Each sunrise is a standing ovation

Each sensation is integration

Each imagination is illumination

So let’s throw our caps up in exhilaration 

Because this is our time for celebration.