2021 Post #19 Written to Inspire Your Younger Self

 by Brett Vogelsinger

How many times in life do adults wish to go back and ask for a redo in their younger years?  How often do we wish we could time-travel and offer that younger version of ourselves some sage advice?  

This poem, "Seventeen" by Rudy Francisco imagines this possibility.  While the poem is about building up the courage to talk to someone you like and maybe even love, it is also about so much more.  It is about the social hierarchy of high school, male body image, introversion, and confidence, and Francisco's acrobatic skill with simile.  

After listening to this poem, ask your students to write a note, a letter, a poem, a list that they would give to a younger self.  In my school, grades 7-9, it is creatively fruitful to ask my ninth-graders to write to their seventh-grade selves.  Can you use a simile or two like Rudy Francisco does to bring to life what you felt back then or to add dimension to the wisdom you are able to pass on now as an older-but-wiser version of yourself?

I find that sometimes in workshops like this it is better to ask (or cajole) a few volunteers to share their work in class rather than insist everyone turn to a partner and read their writing out loud.  I let my students know this before they write so that they can feel comfortable expressing even thoughts and ideas they feel are deeply private.  The writer's notebook can be a space to write with such candor, but only if our students know how, when, and why they are expected to share, and what to do when they feel they cannot share. 

Depending on the number of volunteers to share with an audience, I might have a little time left for a deeper question raised by this poem:  How does our life experience shape our identity?  

Further Reading:

If you like this poem, check out another post featuring Francisco's "My Honest Poem" from earlier this year on Go Poems.  

Brett Vogelsinger is a ninth-grade English teacher at Holicong Middle School in Bucks County, PA.  He has been starting class with a poem each day for the past ten years. He is the creator of the Go Poems blog and the author of Poetry Pauses: Teaching With Poems to Elevate Writing in All Genres.   Find him on Twitter @theVogelman.