Where Home Is


We arrived in the midday
Not knowing what we were getting ourselves into.
We looked around shivering from the coldness
Of seeing new people and finding out who
The dreaded roommate would be.

As time went on
New found friends
Were soon to become old;
This diverse group of people became one,
You were me
I was you.

We talked and we laughed
Till we could not laugh any longer and then some;
We cried tears of joy and
Tears of sadness.

An early sunrise the next morning
Made our faces glow ever so blissfully
As we walked along the misty route
To get to our destination
We liked to call
Breakfast.

Dewdrops were protecting the sacred grass
Only to later be trampled on by star-crossed lovers.

We played games with each others minds
Only to find that they were not games
but an educational experience.

The star filled sky late at night gave us hope
In knowing we were being watched by each other;
The crescent moon kept us aware that someone more powerful than us
Was smiling down on us.

Those endless nights we spent together,
Just talking and praying
Sometimes even crying.

Early morning meetings and talks that kept us
From sleeping,
From missing the moments that we will cherish
In our hearts forever.

Raindrops fell from the sky
Like the tears that fell so softly from our tiresome eyes.

The talents of so many friends who made us laugh
And made us cry.

The pain that we went through to gain what we now know
And what we must teach others.

The ones we loved and the ones we grieved,
The warmth of someone holding you when you were cold
and shivering from the grief of your past,
Comforting words that were told to keep us looking forward
but after kept us looking back.

The joy of being around each other moved our souls to dance.

Then darkness began to spread
And tears began to fall
This time more steadily,
The tears that we shed as were to depart from what became
Our home.

As I look back,
That was my home,
That was my dream come true,
They were my friends,
My sisters and my brothers.
Where did time go
And will it ever come back?

We fought,
We hugged,
We got lost,
We were found.
This is who we were,
We,
The many high school students who spent a week or two at the IUP Summer Honors Program.
Today,
We are honored to have been a part of this,
To have been a part of a newly found family,
A family that shall never be forgotten as we stand on the strong foundation
We made.



Back to Main