Self Poem by Tanaka CXX

Daughter, Son,

The world has an insistence that you should be good at something
That yours should be a path to the known and quantifiable.
To a predetermined ideal
That you may be someone
And make something of yourself.

Long I believed that was the only path
Long I trod that way,
Seeking the self that they all said I was meant to be.
And yet here I stand,
Still searching.

In this the moment of your enlightening I come to whisper,
wisdom gathered on these my travels.
A journey to their envisioned self of I
Today I come to caution.
That as it led me,
So too shall it lead you farther and farther from your true self
That self only you can find
That unknown attainable that only you can clasp.

Heed!
You needn't follow the preconceived
Pursue your yearning
You can be good at something yet to be deciphered
A discipline unto us all only you can reveal.

You can choose to be yourself.