Growing Pains

The tragic life of Emily Dickinson

Those who get lucky
Drenched in money, fame
Jealousy

Those who didn't get lucky
judged by everyone
To satiety

Some of those will vanish
Spat out
like a stringy piece of
Meat
Chewed by their dearest
Daughter!

Some of those
will be held onto
Their names
float in people's mouths
bittersweet
''I wish I could have met her''
"She is so enchanting"

People now
People then
Undeserving equally

"Today I met someone
She was wonderful"
Said no one ever
Without mentioning the flaws
too

It's always 200 years later
A million snowflakes fell
"You know Emily Dickinson?"
A shame
No one knew her
That well

This poem was inspired by the hardships Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), one of the greatest American poets, experienced.
She was a visionary, peculiar and had a mind of her own. This was frowned upon at her time, when women were not supposed to built a name for themselves.
Dickinson was never allowed to publish her poetry under her own name. As a result, she  published only a few of her poems anonymously. It was only after her death that her enchanting poems were discovered. People now describe her as a "genius".Many dream of meeting her and state that they would treat her differently than everyone else did at that time.
I found this quite ironic. Considering how we treat people with different thoughts now, not much has changed.
We may tell ourselves we are more free now with equality and human rights so present in politics, but I'd like to look at the smaller things. Doesn't everyone have an irrepressible urge to belong into a group, to be accepted or even admired?
We all know being the first to do something others would not do is scary as f*ck. Especially because people feel like they are entitled to give their opinion ALL the time.

Here is one example from my own life, that (amongst other things) inspired this poem: At the very beginning of this pandemic, I was the first one at my school to wear a mask. Keep in mind that at that time every health organization, doctor and expert in the field of disease prevention was against masks.
They were apparently "useless" and even bad for your health. (A few months later that changed magically but that's another story).
That day at school was nerve-wracking. I almost hadn't slept the night before thinking about how I would justify my actions. Now looking back I really didn't have to justify anything.
At school my classmates laughed at me, saying I was crazy or paranoid. Surprisingly, I really didn't mind.
Despite, I find it quite ironic how hypocritical people are. Are we really that accepting and free like we say or are we captured by our need to fit in?
That day, not a single person asked me for the motives or reasons behind my actions. They just held onto what they knew and were judgmental about everything the didn't know.
I don't know if my opinion is based on me living in a small town where people are rather narrow-minded, but that day I came to the conclusion that society could be much more advanced if we didn't have the need to fit in with the crowd. How many geniuses hid in the crowd in fear of becoming an outcast? We will never know. We are very lucky to have discovered Emily Dickinson. We are VERY lucky a few blessed specimen of our ancestors discovered fire and showed it to everyone.
If you learn anything from my rant:Free yourselves from the urge to fit in with everybody. It holds you back most of the time from being yourselves and doing what you think is right.
That frightful day in school wasn't so bad at all. I smiled at my classmates, kept my head up and continued doing whatever the f*ck I thought was right. (And now everyone is wearing a mask lol)