sjsprWriting

Teach me something worth knowing.

Teach me how to love without conditions, a rare condition nowadays.

Teach me what it takes to be beautiful

Not pretty, but beautiful

The kind that emanates through the eyes

Teach me how to say no, when everyone is saying yes

Teach me to speak up for what to believe and not just raise my hand

Teach me how to walk away from that person I loved unconditionally,

when I know it’s for the best.

Teach me how to tell stories to my grandchildren

Teach me how many drinks is one drink too many

Teach me how to learn from my mistakes,

Those that are not scribbled on a sheet of paper

And if you teach me how to smile and mean it,

I will call my education a success

I know about celsius and everything it may entail

I can share stories on end about the desperate French

I can graph any equation that is put at my fingertips

But 12 years in, I can’t smile and mean it.

And that makes all the difference.