Free
Right now, at this very moment in time, I am sitting in my classroom, which happens to be located in Unit A of the Donald E Long Home, meditating upon the fact that I am turning into a full-blown 18-year-old adult today and I’m doing it in f***ing Juvie.

I want to be in Big Sur, camping in the Redwoods, where the beauty of nature is so overwhelming that it’s impossible to utter a word. Or maybe I want to be in L.A. or San Francisco, watching the mad people enjoy their madness and listening to them make too much sense for comfort. Maybe, though, I just want to be in Portland, because Portland is home, and every time I come home I fall in love with someone or something beautiful. Or maybe I just want to be anywhere but here. Freedom would be more than good enough.

Adults in general could maybe open up their beady little eyes and realize that because I reject the norm, because the American Dream nauseates me, I am a societal lost cause, but I’m not hurting anyone. So let me go. Let me be.