The Unknown Aedan Berger

People in this world are always quick to push away anything that isn’t normal. Anything strange. Anything different. Anything unknown.

If they’re not familiar with it, then all they want to do is throw it away— deep in the trash, out of sight, out of reach, out of hearing, like the last old idea of a starving artist giving up.

Some think they can just fix the “unknown” and change it to be known. Although, the unknown just needs to be familiarized—not fixed, not cured, not changed to be what it isn’t. Familiarized in a sense that they need to be supported.

Supported by a helping hand, like the pillars of an old cellar barely holding its roof up. Supported like the Leaning Tower of Pisa, just before it tips too far. Supported like a mother or father will help their child achieve their greatest dreams.

They just need a little push: Someone or something to push them on to reach out for what they truly need, something like a gust of wind to send them on their journey, like a leaf blowing across the yard.

All of these rights, and privileges, locked behind bars because of it being “unknown.”

Just because it’s unfamiliar. Out of the ordinary. Different.

But that doesn’t stop the unknown from continuing in this world, and they do anything possible to just fit in. Even for a day. Even for a minute. Even for just a brief moment.

Although time after time, they get pushed away, just because of the belief they aren’t “normal.”

I’ve always seen the unknown. Left out just because of their past making them more mature. Just because they’re mature doesn’t mean that their innocence was taken away at a young age. It just means they have experience.

Experience of this world, and what to expect. Experience that gives them the ability to see differently than anyone else. Experience that makes them different. That experience is good, and while others will sit around, that experience is the exact same fire that will move them towards the future.

Forward, and onward, they’ll advance in this world. Advance like a chess player about to capture the king. Advance like a musician or singer becoming a superstar. Advance like the Romans on a journey to conquer the world. Only to fall flat again.

Time after time, they’re still unknown. Thrown in the trash. To be forgotten.

Lost in an infinite loop of time. Lost like a child in a grocery store. Lost like memories of childhood. They still remain “unknown.”

Aedan Berger, Grade 9 Roseau High School, Roseau Teaching Artist: Frank Sentwali