Beginning of this year
The tide is rolling back
I watched the sunrise, wore a jacket
Still walking along the coast
Thinking about Manager, Parlamentarian, Vice President
Too late to realize how far back the water has gone
Feeling myself get distant from too much stress
The wave of guilt and loneliness is starting to form
Why don't I reach out?
Now I’m walking alone
A tsunami towering over me
Of everything I think I owe
The big wave crashing down
Salt water dripping down my face
Drowning in a sea of silence
My grades, My friends, My clubs
Clinging to driftwood of responsibility
I see myself float away
Drifting from the ones I love
Why Don’t They Reach Out?
My name is Mayte Hernandez, a senior at Cristo Rey Jesuit. I am STUCO Vice President and NHS parliamentarian. I was inspired to write this poem because I was struggling at the beginning of senior year; with all my obligations and the workload I just needed to get all my stress out. My writing process connects an object to my stress in order to cope in a way. I connected the building up of my stress with a tsunami and how it builds up until it finally crashes down. The main theme of my writing was the stresses of senior year and the workload building up. I was inspired by the poetry collection We Borrowed Gentleness by J. Estanislao Lopez, and how he uses objects as symbols.