sydney scanlon

I stand here as a daughter
Young, ripe, and sweet as clementines’
Dripping sticky down your hand
 
I am a sister
Calloused as the camels’ back
Grown rough to pinches, teases, and taunts
 
A lover
Sometimes lapping lightly up the shoreline
And other times thrown into a feverous riptide
Salty, leaving lips parched
 
A student
Eager as the dry earth
Absorbing knowledge with each rainfall
 
A teacher
Who drops her ideas
As the mango tree in the summertime
 
I am Sydney
Eighteen
Sanguine and energized
 
I have lived, up until now, with a lot of labels.
I sit cross legged on my flight across the world and watch
my many titles and accomplishments walk off as I decide I can live without them.
Daughter, lover, and gelato scooper is cast away. Student. Entrepreneur. Babysitter.
Tutor. Athlete. Generous. Baker. Curious. Yogi. One by one I drop each
definition, until I am left with just myself, Sydney. I am suddenly struck by
fear, can I exist without the name and body I consider me. I imagine the
future, with a new name in a different family in the heart of Pune, India. I
decide I can live without it. I will have to. I may come back to the states with new terms of
self awareness and never return to some of my old existences. But nobody should
dare call me a different person. I will only be much more myself. 

Sydney Scanlon

About Sydney Scanlon

Sydney is a considerate thinker who mulls over the metaphysics of existence while reading Waiting for Godot and loves dancing to the beat at the local drum circle. She is a political activist who volunteers at music festivals to register voters. She is a part-time gelato scooper who investigates the economic logistics that will facilitate building additions to a church of mostly illegal immigrants on Calle Ocho and also negotiates the morass of legalities necessary for the permits. She is a sibling of five who goes from volleyball practice, to soccer practice, to yoga, to a game of pick up with neighbors in the street. She believes that informed, moral choices with the greater good in mind can shape a promising future. She wants to be part of that future. She intends to whole heartedly dive into Indias' culture to begin to grasp its intricacies.