You wake up in the morning, your alarm blaring louder than an ambulance on the highway
You feel normal, but something bugs you in the back of your mind
You get out of bed, brush your teeth, and the realization hits you harder than a hammer
Today is the dreaded test, the test that takes the whole school day
If there is one day you wouldn’t want to go to school, it’s today
It’s the last MCAS.
Fear washes over you, like a wave washing over a shell
You slug down the stairs
Mom pressures you to eat breakfast, but you don’t want to
A finished breakfast means school, and school means MCAS
MCAS means a day full of stress
Climb the bus, prep yourself, but nothing works
You still are scared
You know you are going to have to write a gazillion essays
But you don’t want to even write a sentence
You finally walk through large doors
Hope leaving you as life leaves a soul
Put your backpack away, turn your phone off
Now the day starts
As you slug through the test
Your mind is not at rest
32 questions in the first session
38 in the second
But no matter how many questions there are
It still feels too much
Finally the test is over
The very last test of middle school
The civics MCAS was brutal
But now you are done
The feeling of dread that washed over you
A black wave that scared the life out of you
This wave has left you as it is replaced by a light blue wave
A wave of happiness, freedom, and light
