Just Another One of You

Written for the 2011 School-wide Slam Poem Contest at my school, ACS. I shortened it to fit the time limit, but this is the full version

I’m just another teenage girl.

I hate doing homework, I laugh at stupid things, and I have low self-esteem.

I claim my sadness is depression,

I call my depression sadness,

And when I’m in either mood, every sad song I listen to seems to be all about me,

Because apparently everything revolves around me.

My emotions and everyday happenings are all over dramatized in my head,

Because to me EVERYTHING SUCKS and MY LIFE IS HELL.

I’m an average student with a below average GPA,

And when my parents and teachers tell me to do this or that for the betterment of myself,

I say “You just don’t understand.”

I never care enough, and the majority of the time I don’t even care at all.

I’m angsty, moody, and overall negative.

I listen to loud, annoying music that makes the majority of adults tell me to

“TURN DOWN THAT NOISE!!!”

I’m oftentimes on FaceBook, I use e-mail and IM constantly, and I’m an avid YouTuber.

I curse, swear, cuss " whatever you wanna call it "

And when I’m mad, these sort of words make up most of my vocabulary.

Half the time I’m laughing, the other half I’m yelling at you to shut up,

And the other half I’m acting like it doesn’t matter that I’m near-failing math…

Which can’t be obvious to you, because…psh…I didn’t just say 3 halves equal 1 whole…

Yeeeah…and I tend to do that try-to-be-funny-but-just-embarrass-myself thing a lot, too.

All this is so stereotypical of me.
It makes you judge me.

Most of all, this stuff makes me blend into the crowd rather than stand out.

So what exactly makes me different from my peers?

What makes me “worthy” of claiming I’m me,

And not some drone of every other teenage girl that doesn’t fall into the “prep” category?

I’ve got quite a few things…

I’m a ginger who would give the world to trade my locks with someone else

So long as they had black hair that wasn’t so thick,

Simply because I think it’d be more me.

I don’t wear make-up, because I don’t believe in hiding my face

Behind a cosmetic mask of lies about my age, my personality, and my maturity.

I’m more sadistic than you could possibly think,

But can control myself so well you’d never know had I not told you.

I’m one of the people who like plenty of different TV shows,

But I watch all of it on YouTube and DVD box sets because

I don’t believe watching advertisements for things I don’t need,

That brainwash me into thinking I do, is the healthiest way to waste my life.

I’ve never been in one actual fight that wasn’t verbal,

Not because I don’t want to but because I’ve never seen a reason to.

I know that I’m not skinny, but I’m proud of that because, personally,

I don’t want to be a stick…I like having a little meat on my bones.

My best friend since the second grade is one of the smartest people I know,

And even though almost everyone who meets her thinks she’s weird,

She’s taking all AP classes, is excelling far above average in 3 different languages all at once,

Is one of the top three artists I’ve ever seen the work of,

And I aspire to be just like her, but rather than sit around and wait for good things to come to me,

I have the common sense to respect her rather than envy her,

Because of this, her and I haven’t gotten in one fight for almost 8 years,

Something no other teenage girl I’ve talked to has managed with their best friend.

I can sing, I can dance, I can act, but I choose not to most of the time because I want to learn something new.

I have an extremely anime-like personality that’s all over the place and a smidgen bipolar

Oh! and know a bit of Japanese too,

“Konbanwa!  Watashi wa Ashira desu.  Watashi wa suki sushi, anime, manga… ette… dango daikazoku ga desu! Kawaii desho!”

And you know what else?

I learned all that without Google Translator OR a Japanese teacher.

Before I even knew about Into the Wild, my plan was to just leave the day I turned 18

And take a trip to Alaska for the same sort of adventure.

I’ve never heard of anyone living a story without even reading the book.

I’m a Pokemon and Zelda nerd, yet I love reading Plato and Nietzsche.

I may suck at math, science, and history but I’m gonna make a career out of writing,

And I don’t know if you saw “You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown,”

“The Apple Tree,” “Everyday Masquerade,” or “Alice in Wonderland”

But I teched for ALL those plays and I think I did a damn good job at it too.

I’ve learned to no longer regret because regret only holds me back in life.

Unlike almost every one of you teenagers out there, I’m not afraid to say “I don’t know what love is.”

I learn from not only my mistakes but the mistakes of others,

Because if it’s all been laid out for me and I’ve already seen the results,

Why would I want to test my luck going down the same, dark path as someone else?

All these things are what make me who I am, and more.

Don’t judge what you don’t understand,

Don’t let society as a whole push you around, and

Most importantly:

Be yourself, because everyone else is taken.

Author's Note

Yes, every one of these things is true. So please don't judge based on the facts, judge based on the way I laid it out, the order of the facts, and how it was written [keeping in mind that it's meant to be spoken].

The Japanese has improper grammer. It should be written like this:
"Konbanwa! Watashi ha Ashira desu. Watashi ha sushi to, anime to, manga to... ano, dango daikazoku no uta ga sukidesu! Kawaii deshyou!"
But pronouced more like this:
"Konbanwa! Watashi wa Ashira des. Watashi wa sushi toh, anime toh, manga toh... dango daikazoku no uta ga sukidesu! Kawaii Deshou!"

EXTRA NOTE: I might make an updated version of this later as I grow and change. Should I or should I scrap the idea?