When I wake up in the morning, I feel a rush of energy flowing through me
I pour myself as much cereal as my body needs
Yet my Wheat Thins box reminds me it will help me not hate myself? When I wake up?
I dash up the stairs up to class
Enjoying the power and speed of my legs as they scale flight after flight of stairs 
Yet my legs are judged based on the length of my skirt in the morning
My body is exhilarating, it’s my home
I’m the driver of the Tesla Model X not a Barbie doll on display
I don’t care about your concept of beauty that centers around excluding people
But as I walk down the hall
I’m judged first by the size of my waist
And not by how many tests I’ve aced
I’m judged by the size of my chest
And not by how capable my heart is of feeling
How unafraid it is of failing
You wish to reduce me to a face shape and a dress size
The size of my brain reduced to the color of my hair 
Social media plastered with supposed “cures” for the insecurities I would’ve never had otherwise 
Your “advice” for self-care for girls. That care.
Hurts. My. Self.
It takes guts and grace
To remain kind in cruel situations

Friend.
You were my first childhood friend
You always talked and talked
You were funny and super silly
And that was perfect
You grew sadly serious over time
Now I cannot find you under your hoody
I wonder if you ever find yourself anymore
I wonder if you feel your loneliness
I wonder if you realize anymore, your own acting
You travel in packs with your friends
Looking, but unable to talk
Connect
Whenever you try to make conversation
The silence stretches like a lifetime
As you scramble for the “manly” thing to say
I don’t blame you for what the world has done to you
I understand this world tries to crush both of us into their archaic molds
You’re supposed to feel nothing besides your male ego
I’m supposed to be nothing besides pretty
But I’m so much more than that
I reject the idea of striving to fit the ever changing “beautiful”
I love myself, and that is how I teach others to love me
I accept and I cherish the way I was designed
I know to belong wholly to myself and myself only
I don’t need to change who I am because someone else tells me to
I am enough, I am happy
My spirit has crushed the archaic mold
We are human, not men, not women
Humans
who are living our
Precious
Finite
Lives
Taking
or losing forever the chance
To deserve being called human
To find
Our humanity
Inside us