Poem: Fighting For

Now
I know
What I was fighting for

I fought
for that lingering waft
of lunch-box spice;
the faint strain
of an off-key song

I fought
for the ink
bleeding on to paper -
red underlines, blue A-plus,
answers scrawled in black

I fought
for chalk-dust streaks,
compass-carved desks,
and dreamy-eyed windows
mooning over sunlit grounds

I fought
for the lame jokes
graffitied
on the walls of
my heart

I fought
so there’d be a tomorrow
when the infinite Now
could be an
eternally fond Then

I fought
for you

Now I know:
I fought for you

---

Dedicated to my school, my classmates.

Twelve years of school life,  now officially a thing of my past. Yes, today was the last exam of Twelfth Grade, the Last Ever Day in School Uniform, the Last Ever... okay, if I continue in this vein, I'll dissolve into a puddle of tears.

There was a point in the past two months when I was so completely stressed by the incessant flow of Decisive-Exam-Must-Perform-Well reminders that I even had a couple of breakdowns. I would stare at the ceiling and wonder what was the point of it all.

It was as if I was setting out for a battle without even knowing what I was fighting for.

But today, I have my answer.