Jessica Berger, a 16-year-old sophomore at East Hampton High School, was studying for her A.P. world history and algebra II midterms when she was inspired to write a poem that won first prize in the Suffolk Poetry Contest.
The competition, in its second year, garnered 71 entries from teens across Suffolk County. Jessica’s original work, “What That Light Costs” took the top spot.
“Poetry just flows out of me when I’m feeling an emotion. It’s not a thing where I can sit down and say ‘I’m going to write a poem.’ It has to come from within,” Jessica said. “I had such a workload and I was so stressed and I think that’s just where this came out.”
While she loves writing poems, Jessica said she was shocked to see hers win. She hadn’t even submitted the form giving permission to publish it. When the contest organizers emailed her to ask for that form, she had a sneaking suspicion that she might have received an honorable mention, but the first-place announcement was a pleasant surprise.
“It felt really good to know that my poem had an impact on so many people.”
The poem begins:
There is a quiet kind of rebellion in choosing breath over brilliance.
Each morning waking to the sound of my own pulse tapping against the windows of my ribs,
Asking if I’m still here, if I can
I used to worship the ticking clock, bowing to its steady sermon of achievement.
Now time is a spilled jar of ink,
I’m too busy cleaning the stains to write down what I’ve learned
The topic is one most teens and adults can relate to — the feeling that we are all under so much pressure to keep up. “I think teens nowadays are under so much pressure to be perfect, to get perfect grades, to be in 10 A.P. classes, to keep up socially and also emotionally and that’s all channeled in my poem,” Jessica said. “It’s about choosing yourself over being an overachiever, choosing yourself over school and piles of work. I was feeling very overwhelmed when I wrote this. I had so much work. I wasn’t doing great on my tests. I was trying so hard and I was like, ‘Do I pick myself or do I give in to all of this work?’ I chose myself and I wrote poetry because that’s what makes me happy.”
The environment at East Hampton High School also helps relieve some of the stress of being a teen today. Jessica says she feels incredibly supported by her teachers and administrators. “My teacher Ms. [Meghan] MacNish encourages my writing a lot and has written me a letter of recommendation for teen poet laureate. She is very supportive and I feel like I have a lot of teachers here who I would call mentors.”
The school community is proud of her achievement. Michael Buquicchio, the assistant principal, said he was “blown away. The fact that she put that on a blank page is unbelievable. That is such an outlet. If only all students had an outlet like that. . . . They’re under a ton of pressure and colleges are more competitive than ever and they’re trying to do their best to enter that playing field, but they do need their outlets and they need healthy activities. This is a perfect example of that.”
Jessica’s full poem can be read here.