By Raizy Katz, age 16, NY, illustration by Netanya Abramson

 

No way! I can’t!

Was my first thought

It’s like chasing a shadow

That’s never caught

 

It’s a nice idea

It’s amazing in theory

To be done by an other-

Any other but me!

 

It’s so great and special

I’m not fitting for it

It’s so big and high

Me reaching it?!

I’ve never done it before,

And it’s so not my thing

My conclusion-

It’s an impossible feat

 

I’m just incapable,

There’s simply no way

I feel like it’s just not

In my DNA

 

How I wish that I would

Have the ability

But in despair I feel

That it’s not in me!

 

But all this

Is just inside my kup

It’s my own beliefs

That made me give up

 

In truth, I can!

I really, really can!!

All I gotta do

I believe that I can.