2009

It’s a quarter past six

As I sit and wait,

In my car by the old hotel.

The words DUNBAR’S 30th ANNUAL

REUNION

Reflect upon the black pavement

I shuffle in and begin to talk,

Making ghosts into memories

And memories into real-life people,

That I can’t imagine how I could ever forget.

Do you remember the person that always made

Do you smile?

The person that always let you down?

The 3 students that we lost while we looked

Into the face of invincibility?

We Were The Youth,

And now, we sit and laugh,

About how anything seemed to mean

Everything,

At that specific point in time.

I wade through the crowd as a blank face,

And see what I could’ve been

From the well-dressed surgeon from D.C.,

To the anthropologist from Chicago,

Or the teacher from Indiana,

We all have traveled our different paths,

But yet, have started from the same place.

And although I admit,

That I do recognize half the crowd,

The sense of nostalgia peels back old age,

And we can see the faces of opportunity that

We were!

When the lines had not yet been crossed.

When not everything was just in black or

White.

Impressionable.

Like pieces of clay, we were made to 

Withstand

Pressure,

Heat,

And time.

And in this rising sun of high school,

Some of us have cracked under the pressure,

Weren’t able to take the heat,

Or didn’t want to waste time?

But you who st here today,

Will withstand all 3 with pride.

Because of the conversations of the reunion

Become a whisper,

And the music grinds into a strained hum.

I can tell that you were the ones who made

It.

So you really did marry him or her.

And you finally got that great job in L.A.

Well I’m glad you broke the mold of being 

Just an athlete,

Or just an academic,

Or just an anything,

Because you have grown to become yourself.

And as I go to shake your hand

And say goodbye for a second time,

I just wanted to remind you that you were a

Part of something bigger:

The class of 2009,

A class that no one in the roo had dared to 

Forget.

And together, we leave

Me and around 450 successful others,

And walk into,

Another night.

And as I go to shake your hand,

And say goodbye for a second time,

I just wanted to remind you that were a 

Part of something bigger

The class of 2009,

A class that no one in the room dared to 

Forget.

And together we leave,

Me and around 450 successful others,

And walk into,

Another night.

-Katie Huang