Where I'm From and Where I'm Going

First Person Memoir Contest

by Monique Fortune

Seventeen-year-old Monique Fortune submitted this poem to First Person Arts for review by Amy Goldwasser, editor of the newly published Red: The Next Generation of American Writers — Teenage Girls — On What Fires Up Their Lives Today. Amy will join Monique and several other local teen writers on the stage during "Having Her Say: Teen Girls Speak Up," Sat., Nov. 10.

I'm from a place I'd like to call home,

But some call it the ghetto.

I'm from boring hours at Baptist Church.

No matter how tired you are, "You better not go to sleep!"

I'm from "Shake what ya mama gave ya!" and

Block parties that served as family reunions.

I'm from trips upstate, cross state to penitentiaries

Jail visits because this fool just didn't get enough!

I'm from Ring~Around~the~Rosie, Toostie Rolls, Nerds, and Peanut Chews!

I'm from Catch-a-Girl-Freak-a-Girl, our own hide-and-seek.

I'm from vacation bible school and overnight camps,

Two weeks full of songs and arts and crafts.

I'm from Sheena and, well, Sheena.

Mama's baby and Papa's nevermind, although he told me he loved me.

I'm from junk food dinners but still satisfied.

I'm from determination and the will to survive.

And although I am from a baby having a baby,

I am still the dream and the hope of the slave.

I'm from statistics that say I should be somebody's baby mama by now,

But instead I'm somebody's scholar.

You may not be from where I'm from,

And you're certainly not going where I'm going.

My eyes are on the prize and I won't let it

Stop me!

Each year with the First Person Festival, City Paper sponsors a memoir-writing contest. For the sixth annual installment, entrants were asked to write about the objects of their affection. Each submission had to be a personal essay relating to an object that has special meaning to the writer. "Klaudia's Bracelet" is the winner of the short-short competition. "Where I'm From and Where I'm Going" is one of seven poems written by local teen girls to be published in a limited-edition chapbook to be distributed exclusively at the First Person Festival. For more information, visit firstpersonarts.org.