Wednesday's Word on the Street: In Memory of a Girl

YMC doesn't need to speak on behalf of children... Our kids can speak for themselves! At a recent Odyssey mentoring session facilitated by our partners Street Poets, our mentors and mentees brought their souls into the room.

One of our mentees, a brilliant and guarded 14-year-old, was brave enough to read the poem below to a room full of 80 people... and now she's allowed us to share her poem with you:

In memory of a girl
who used to laugh and smile for no reason at all
A girl who used to stick her chest out with her head help up high, nice and tall.
I find myself wondering, who I am to be brilliant, beautiful, and talented?
The voices in my head scream at me to hide the person that lies within
because that person no one understands,
the pain, the hurt, now one gives a damn.
The blood I bleed, the tears I shed, my highs and lows are gone.
He kicked, stabbed and broke my heart,
to the point where me and my self esteem fell apart.
I’m not beautiful,
I wish these people would stop lying because I’m internally dying,
to be this person I’m not,
happy, beautiful and talented.
I wish the pain would stop.
I wish people would quit saying I’m pretty or beautiful
because I know that I’m not.
I don’t want to be happy and I don’t want to smile,
I want to be left alone with my tears and sorrows,
and even some days I wished
that I wouldn’t see tomorrow.


... And her mentor was right there with her when she read her poem. The greeting we use, "Sawubona," means "I see you." Her mentor got to let her know that she heard her - the real her - and she was still going to be there. That's the miracle of mentoring.