I had
never heard of Billy Collins until I saw a 2012 TED talk – Everyday
moments, caught in time – where he presented 5 of his poems in
animations. He is an American poet who has won various awards and
honours for his poetries.
I
appreciate poetry even though I am not a big fan but the animations
got me hooked to it and sort of made me understand the poems better
and faster than I would have had I only listened and not seen a
visual representation.
My main
point in this TED talk was the last poem he read out to the audience
which he said was a recent poem titled: To my Favourite 17-Year-Old
High School Girl. Even thought the poem mentioned “girl”, I feel
it goes on to address all teenagers and adults alike who feel the
time to act is not now and have 1001 excuses for everything.
"To my
Favourite 17-Year-Old High School Girl" by Billy Collins.
***
Do you
realize that if you had started building the Parthenon on the day you
were born
you would
be all done in only one more year?
Of
course, you couldn't have done that all alone.
So never
mind; you're fine just being yourself.
You're
loved for just being you.
But did
you know that at your age
Judy
Garland was pulling down a 150,000 dollars a picture,
Joan of
Arc was leading the French army to victory,
and
Blaise Pascal had cleaned his room –
no wait,
I mean he had invented the clculator?
Of
course, there will be time for all that later in your life,
after you
come out of your room and begin to blossom,
or at
least pick up all your socks.
For some
reason I keep remembering that Lady Jane Grey was Queen of England
when she
was only 15.
but then
she was beheaded, so never mind her as a role model.
A few
centuries later,
when he
was your age,
Franz
Schubert was doing the dishes for his family,
but that
did not keep him from composing two symphonies,
four
operas and two complete masses as a youngster.
But if
course, that was in Austria
at the
height of romantic lyricism,
not here
in the suburbs of Cleveland.
Frankly,
who cares if Annie Oakley was a crack shot at 15,
or if
Maria Callas debuted as Tosca at 17?
We think
you're special just being you –
playing
with your food and staring into space.
By the
way, I lied about Schubert doing the dishes,
but that
doesn't mean he never helped out around the house.
***
