TuanDat Nguyen|2012 New Year’s Poem

Happy New Year everyone! Here’s a little poem I wrote to usher in 2012. Hope you guys like it(: 

This must be what death feels like because 365 days just flashed before my eyes like lightning bolts in the night sky—illuminating just enough of the rest of my life to give me hope for the future. I can feel the memories lingering like the butterflies and stupid smiles that never really go away the night after a first date. And if you look close, you can still find traces of these memories hiding underneath my eyes, in bags full of questions I’ve stayed up late at night searching for answers to. You’ll find them in the worn soles of my favorite shoes that took me to places I never thought I’d go. You’ll find them in broken pieces of lead from when I tried to write what I should have said and in the shreds of my eraser that I swept beneath my desk—hoping that it would hide my mistakes. You’ll find them in text message smiles and facebook conversations. In cell phone bills and receipts for things I never thought I’d do. You’ll find them in worn out keyboards and doodles in school notebooks, and maybe in my thumbprints on an actual book or two. But this chapter in my life has drawn to a close. And I suppose it’s about time to move on to better things. So here’s to the New Year. To the future. Here’s to the memories waiting to be made with friends I haven’t met yet. Here’s to finding the courage to say the things that I should’ve, but haven’t said yet. Here’s to making mistakes and falling flat on my face, and then getting back up again so I can continue to chase my dreams. Here’s to giving romance a chance—falling in love at first glance. Or maybe at first dance—hold her close, palm in hand, slow-dancing to the beating of our hearts. Sounds like a good place to start. Here’s to singing at the top of my lungs and not caring who hears, and finally being brave enough to face my biggest fears—like never being good enough. Here’s to finding myself, and never losing myself in this world again. Here’s to being the best person I could possibly be because that’s all you can ever ask of me. And I hope you can see that I try, because I can’t deny that I’ve got a lot of work to do. But I’m going to start here. I’m going to start now. So dear 2011, take your final bow. Clear the stage as 2012 begins. And on the off chance that the world ends, just let it. Because even if it does, the way I’m living my life I won’t regret it.

(Source: tuandat)