Aryn Henning Nichols

If I beat them, I’ll be enough.

If I stay with them, I’ll matter.

If I run as fast as them… as strong… as good….

But the Ifs never end. 

Because there is always someone 

Faster,

Stronger,

Better.

Every time you look at them,

You forget yourself.

Your late nights.

The quiet efforts.

The days no one noticed. 

Comparison doesn’t push you forward

It pulls you back.  

It’s…

S

L 

O

W

L

y

Breaking you down.

Real success doesn’t come from chasing someone else’s path

It comes from you. 

Showing up when it’s hard.

Pushing when you want to be quiet.

Working when no one is watching. 

Believing that you are enough to begin with.

Stop looking sideways. 

Look how far you have come. 

And keep going toward your goal. 

We created Future Focused, a new Inspire(d) column written by pre-teens and teens, to help give the next generation an opportunity to share their voices. Partnering with Dana Hogan, the Extended Learning Program teacher at Decorah Middle School, we offered prompts around progress, growth, success, and overcoming difficulties. Students submitted some really great work, and four were chosen for this Inspire(d). You can read all the Future Focused pieces published so far at iloveinspired.com/category/future-focused. Here’s to Listening to the Next Generation! – Aryn

Five years old.

I stand

I run

I play

I laugh

Life is fun

Life is carefree

I don’t need to know yet

Ten years old.

I dream

I learn

I wonder

I grow

Life is still fun

Life is still carefree, yet

Worries have blossomed

In the shadows of my mind

Shoved in the back

Emerging into the light more every day

I still don’t need to know yet

Fifteen years old.

I get up

I go to school

I do homework

I sleep

Life is not quite as fun

Not quite as carefree

The worries take up space in the front of my mind

They are out of the shadows

I have to know

What job I want

What classes I take

What I study in college

I have to know my future

Now

That is not true

I do not have to know

I can consider it

Maybe this…

Maybe that…

I can try

I can experiment

But I do not have to know

Those worries can be forced back

Into the shadows

Until I can decide

We created Future Focused, a new Inspire(d) column written by pre-teens and teens, to help give the next generation an opportunity to share their voices. Partnering with Dana Hogan, the Extended Learning Program teacher at Decorah Middle School, we offered prompts around progress, growth, success, and overcoming difficulties. Students submitted some really great work, and four were chosen for this Inspire(d). You can read all the Future Focused pieces published so far at iloveinspired.com/category/future-focused. Here’s to Listening to the Next Generation! – Aryn

One little seed, 

With a little life that has growth ahead,

One little seed, 

With a little life that has progress ahead.

The seed is suffocated,

Sitting in the dirt,

Two inches deep,

Two inches from freedom. 

The little seed feels it will never make it, 

Never become a tree, 

Never see the sun, 

Never breathe the fresh air and tower over people. 

However, the seed tries,

Pushing hard, pulling itself up toward the sky, 

It tries, 

Not giving up, though there is doubt. 

A blue sky peeps through the dirt,

A warm sun shines on the seed,

A hole forms in the dirt, 

Hope is renewed. 

The sky turns gray, 

Pouring with rain, 

Covering the hole, the light,

The hope. 

But the seed keeps going,

It picks itself up, 

Rising from the dirt

Becoming a sprout. 

The seed has time, 

It will grow into a big, beautiful, healthy tree someday, 

The seed has time,

But it’s happy with its progress. 

We created Future Focused, a new Inspire(d) column written by pre-teens and teens, to help give the next generation an opportunity to share their voices. Partnering with Dana Hogan, the Extended Learning Program teacher at Decorah Middle School, we offered prompts around progress, growth, success, and overcoming difficulties. Students submitted some really great work, and four were chosen for this Inspire(d). You can read all the Future Focused pieces published so far at iloveinspired.com/category/future-focused. Here’s to Listening to the Next Generation! – Aryn