"To be or not to be..."

To care or not to care-that is the question:
Whether 'tis better for myself to quit
Working and killing myself for good grades,
Or to obtain the drive to strive to be
Valedictorian? To try; to quit;
No more--And by giving up I prevent
The immense fear and thousand watching eyes
That a speech comes with, 'tis a temptation
Devoutly to be wish'd; to try; to quit;
To quit; perchance to relax: ay, there's the hitch;
For in quitting what money may be lost
From schools less impressed by no 4.0
Must consider; there's the stupid reason
That keeps me pushing myself constantly;
For who would want the increase of coll'ge debt,
That dumb money, the deciding factor,
Of sleepless nights, of tears innumerous,
Of the dreaded speech and unbear'ble stress
That comes with class Valedictorian,
Is it worth it? Who would really fancy,
To cry and stress throughout all of high school
But the fear of an unknown sum of debt,
For failure to impress the colleges
Without a 4.0, pushes my will
And makes me endure the obstacles
For fear of what may be of college otherwise?
Thus school makes us irrational beings;
And so our constant stress and flowing tears
Are interrupted with thoughts of the future,
And desires to give up and not care
With this regard are thrown to the curbside,
And we force ourselves to continue trying.

Beowulf-Personal Reflection.

“You’re equipped to fight” my mind tells me
“The object before you is yours.”
So I pick up my weapons and put on my armor
and hesitantly walk through the doors.

I reflect upon my life thus far
and a feeling of fear surges through.
The things I have fought for have been stripped away,
so what am I to really do?

I look straight ahead and pause for a moment
to see a Grendel far greater than I.
So I turn around and insecurely walk away
and look back at my failure and sigh.

What is it that keeps me from fighting
for the things that I truly treasure?
Is it fear of letdown or the concrete mindset
that there will always be someone better?

Or is there Something missing in my approach to battle
that will give me the victory I long for?
Are my insecurities and failure to win
a way of revealing that I need Someone greater?

My life will be only missed opportunities
if I depend upon my own strength.
So I must pick up my weapons and put on my true Armor

and confidently fight the battles at length!