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   DIR Return to: Graduation 
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       #Post#: 33--------------------------------------------------
       Writing
   DIR By: hailtotheking
       Date: May 25, 2018, 9:01 am
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       {Issue #12}
       [Continual speech from the 3 main story tellers - ending scenes
       of book]
       - Male "jock/popular/still outside the bubble" walking onto
       stage, de-robes and is in Jeans/t-shirt
       Yeah dad, I'm in jeans and a t-shirt.  That's me.  I asked for
       this time today and was granted a few minutes.  I promise it'll
       be short.  I've taken plenty of ya'lls time over the last 12yrs
       or so.  Truth be told though ... Ya'll have taken my time, our
       time.  In fact -looking at classmates- ya'll 've taken my time
       too ...
       - Female "Salutatorian/drum major/good girl/never given a chance
       to be other than" in proper hat/gown/adornments
       ... yes, ya'll have taken my time too by building a personality
       for me.  You took things from and about me and created your own
       structure of who I am.
       Because I enjoyed learning I must be a bookworm.  Because I had
       no interest in drinking or smoking I must be a goody-two-shoes.
       Because I have a strong spiritual side I must not ever go out on
       a date.
       - Older male student
       ... or even better yet, because I "FAILED" a couple times I must
       be stupid.  See, everything about me HAD to be what you built.
       Just like stereotypes, who I am was defined by the little bit of
       truth with all sorts additives from every single one of you.  So
       many additives that the truth got twisted into something that it
       never was in the first place.
       - First Male
       ... but that's neither here nor there.  See, I made the choice
       to be all of those things.  The Jock to some, a popular kid to
       others despite nothing being further from the truth, a big
       brother to most of you, but most of all ... a guy that was
       allegedly all those things, but that not a single one of you
       would look twice at.  I was merely someone playing a part in the
       movie that was to be your formative years.
       - Female
       ... someone had to be the one burying her face in the books.
       Someone had to be the rigid disciple of the rules.  Someone had
       to be everything you really would've liked to be, but were to
       scared to be.  As long as you weren't the brainiac it was ok
       when you did slam the books because you were growing up, or
       maturing.  As long as I was the one being 'square' you could
       justify some bad choices ...
       -Second Male
       ... because hell, MY choices were going to be much worse right?
       As long as you've got me to point at whatever you're doing or
       did was either not so bad or at the very least justified.  Yes,
       I was your measuring stick for what just how bad you could
       realistically slip up and still have that "learning experience"
       forgiveness applied.  Your parents, the teachers, or the cops
       would chalk it up to being young as long as I was there
       underneath.  But hey, me be damned you know
       - First Male
       ... so what if I carried all of the weight.  So what if I had
       the burden of how you'd look back on all of this?  Did we win
       the big game, have fun, grow as a person?  I don't know, did we?
       Did I score the touchdown or fumble?  Heaven forbid you take
       the hand off because that's my part to play for you.
       - Female
       ... Heaven forbid you base whether or not you enjoyed something
       on how you actually felt instead of whether you possibly could
       have based on whether or not I was there.
       - Second Male
       ... Heaven forbid you evaluate yourself based on what you
       actually did or didn't do as opposed to whether or not you
       finished ahead of me
       - First Male
       ... Thankfully though, all of this ends today.  Ceremonial as it
       may be, today could not be more real.  All of you that "helped"
       shape me and make me who I am?  All of you can no longer sit and
       judge.  None of you can continue to formulate a persona for me
       that fits your needs.  I no longer have to sit back and bite my
       tongue as all of you are ignorant to just how damaging it is to
       allow someone to place their hand on every group that formed,
       but not actually be allowed to be a part of a single one.
       - Female
       ... Sure, I was nice enough and it's not that any of you hated
       me or thought me a bitch.  Though, how many of you genuinely
       ever stopped and looked at who I was?  How I was?  How many of
       you even noticed, let alone did anything about the fact that I
       was always left out because it was just assumed I was with a
       particular other engagement?  My fellow band geeks!  Yes, I was
       a drum major but when did ya'll ever see me with them outside of
       the band hall?  When not in Dolly's after school tutoring when
       did any of the smartie pants have me in tow?
       - Second Male
       .... You couldn't even name a time that you saw a group of kids
       doing something wrong and saw me with them, can you?  Can any of
       you even tell me what my class rank was?  You would shit your
       gowns if you took a peek and saw where my name was.  I know the
       faculty had a heart attack, yeah?  But so what ... so what about
       any of it anymore because today it all ends.  I'm not a slacker,
       asshole, trouble maker, or FAILURE
       - First Male
       ... I'm not a poster boy, whipping boy, golden child, or
       someone to house YOUR expectations in.
       - Female
       ... I'm not the good girl, I no longer look down my nose at
       people, have to dress a certain way, or act as you feel is
       proper.
       - Second Male
       ... No, today I'm none of that any longer.  Today I am
       liberated.  Graduation Day breaks the chains that bind my heart
       and the shackles that lock my soul.  Today is about ME, my TRUE
       self.  All of the hard work you've all sunk into the idea of
       what I am ends.
       - First Male
       ... the path you've laid for me to walk takes a sharp left.
       All of the ways you've imposed on me ... the ways you've taken
       that lie of "dream big do anything you want kid" and turned it
       into "you've got to do this or you can't get what you want" ...
       the way you built up my world so young, told me to dream of
       going beyond the stars only to tell me that the real world
       doesn't work that way. I'm done.  I'm no longer jailed by your
       perceptions, intentions, and by how you think.  My cell door is
       open .... I DID MY TIME IN PRISON OF YOU
       - Female
       ... So I take all of your lies, your false faces, your rules ...
       everything about all of you.  The fake and insincere
       appreciation for who I am ... I take all of that and it is the
       fuel, the combustion that allows me to unfurl the WINGS OF ME
       and take flight.  My time here done, I'm liberated of all of you
       ... and I am truly FREE.
       - Second Male
       .... today, Graduation Day ... the ridiculous pomp and
       circumstance of it all ... it marks a passage that none of you
       will ever really grasp.  The one actual glimpse of ME that you
       will get, is this.  I TRULY and WHOLEHEARTEDLY hope that at
       least one of you finds your liberation as well.  A piece of me
       does love you and does honestly care how your story is written
       after today.  I'm just not bound within it's pages any longer
       ..."
       [Three panel line of all three in 'cross' like pose looking up
       and ascending]
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