“ The Life & Thoughts of Some Native American Chick ” By Kayleen Knapp ((student at Native Pipeline to College 2012)) [[ .and.random.chizz.poetry. ]] “ The Life & Thoughts of Some Native American Chick ” [[ .and.random.chizz.poetry. ]] By Kayleen Knapp ((student at Native Pipeline to College 2012))
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Transcript
“ The Life & Thoughts of Some
Native American Chick ”
By Kayleen Knapp ((student at Native Pipeline to College 2012))
[[ .and.random.chizz.poetry. ]]
“ The Life & Thoughts of Some
Native American Chick ”
[[ .and.random.chizz.poetry. ]]
By Kayleen Knapp ((student at Native Pipeline to College 2012))
Who are you?
I am Kayleen Knapp. People call me “Kat-‐Knapp”
and “Knapp-‐Time”.
But that’s not my name. My name is Kayleen.
I want to be everything. I want to be a scientist. I want to be smart.
I want to go all over the world. I want to be helpful and aware. I want to be a business owner. I want to understand people.
I want to be everything. I want to be Kayleen.
Kayleen, who does everything.
I want to be important in my culture.
I don’t want to be something very big
But maybe I’ll come to the meetings and bring people coffee. Maybe my studies will help them.
I hope so. Kayleen, the helpful.
I want to make friends.
Not necessarily for connections. But for the feeling of being in a
family when I’m away from my
biological one. A new family. Families.
Kayleen, your relative.
I am Kayleen Knapp. Who are you?
I am here… Because I want to be.
There doesn’t have to be a better reason does there?
I am here because I love my culture. I love learning about others though too.
I learned a Hawaiian dances. I learned how to make a clapper sticks.
I learned about medicine plants. I learned songs and stories.
I like learning about cultures.
I am here because I want to be.
I am here because I wanted the new friendships. It’s funny
how much I love everyone and yet
how I can’t stand to leave them though
I knew I would be ever since the beginning.
I am here because I want to be.
I am here because I want to go to college. I want a future
I want to focus on my future I want to focus on everything
that I want to for college.
I am here because I want to be.
I am here because I wanted something to do. I’m always bored.
That’s why my personality is how it is. Getting rid of boredom
for everyone. I love doing that.
I am here because I want to be.
I am here because I like strangers. I met lots and lots here.
I am here because I like friends. I found some here.
I am because I love family. I made one here,
I’m here because I want to be. I am here because I am here.
swinging. skies are so blue
the walls are all painted
with drawings so beautiful
in spray paint
the clouds are in shapes of
bunnies and sailboats
The bikers are so friendly
the dogs come by to sniff
the flowers nearby are so pretty
of pinks and blues and purples
my eyes wander but my feet stay
my lips closed but my ears open
i l ove it here
i sigh and close my eyes,
tipping my head back, as i'm
swinging in a hammock
i go and i wish
that as my mother calls me over
a little more than a block away
that the reason why i was here
in this beautiful place
was not so that i could
procrastinate.
When I was a little girl, I wanted to be a princess. Then I got older, and I wanted to be a ballerina, a teacher, a scientist, an artist, an author…
People who openly express their inner child often want to do what they wanted to do as a child.
But I wanted to be everything.
So… I want to be everything.
I want to be a psychologist, geneticist, criminologist, teacher, artist, author, voice actress, and the future owner of my own café, “Bella Latte”, and book store, “Literary Lane”, and I want to adopt children and—
I want to do everything.
One of my friends called my dream of being “everything” as me being a professional student.
That sounds pretty good to me.
That sounds pretty d*mn good.
Have you ever wanted to be anything? Fill out your dream life?
Or are you going to settle for a cubicle, something you swore to never think of as a future occupation?
I want to be everything.
I plan to be everything.
I will be everything.
Well.
Except for a princess anyway.
{ WHEN I GROW UP }
When I grow up I wanna’ be famous I wanna’ be a star
I wanna’ be in movies I wanna’ see the world
Drive nice cars I wanna’ have groupies
When I grow up Be on TV
People know me Be on magazines When I grow up Fresh and clean Number one chick
When I step out on the scene But be careful what you wish for ‘cause you just
might get it You just might get it You just might get it
-‐-‐When I Grow Up by Pussycat Dolls
hear my plea.
I watch over you, my brothers and sisters. because i love you so.
and yet, when i come towards you you cower in fear.
listening to the children of your kind i find that you create me into a beast without pride.
i can no longer come up to you for you no longer show me love
respect care loyalty
that me and my little brothers show you.
you allow my younger sibling, the dog,
into your homes without a care. you give them what you used to give
us as well. we are the same.
yet, you will not allow us to eat our meals in front of you
that we worked so hard to catch that allowed themselves to be caught as we sung our songs to thank them in
our cries of howls are we no longer special? are we no longer loved?
wanted? you killed me in yellow stone
so many times… why?
is it because of the stories you told your children?
let us speak let us speak to you once more
we cry and howl at the moon
the last being to treat us the same as before
in such sorrow. and do you care at all?
and the stories you tell your children…
i will clear up the matter for you
with one sentence to come from my lips
lips that you claim have murdered and killed:
“ Li tt le Red Rid ing Hood LIED. ”
BIGGER than me } You’re the boot.
I’m the ant.
You are so much bigger than me.
I’m surprised you haven’t
squashed me yet.
I came here to learn more
to become more than just an ant
and I guess you want to be
more than a boot.
What I learned is that
I don’t have to be an ant to this
big giant world
I can be a peacock,
I can be an elephant.
I can be a boot too.
I don’t know what you’ve learned
But I’ve learned:
I’m not that tiny.
the stars of my people.
May the dirt road lead me home back to the promise land of my people.
worn out with love and care as the footsteps of my ancestors remain. i lay down upon the grass
and look up at the stars that i can’t see through the smog.
did you know that they say that every star
represents our deceased ancestors. but now i can’t see them does that mean i’m alone? am i the last one of my kind? am i the only one of my kind?
i get up from the grass and i run away from the smog filled city
of where i was born. but not where i was meant to be.
so i will run all the way and i will not stop
until i reach my ancestors’ homelands where the skies are clear and free
and lay down on the grass my ancestors laid down upon
and look up at the stars that covered the sky of a “ starry night ”
where i can see the stars where i can see my ancestors
where i know that i am not alone i am surrounded by my people
even if i’m the only one laid down upon the grass next to the worn dirt road my people traveled on
i am not alone. so may the dirt road lead all of us home
where the stars, where our people, await us with open arms.
Friendships and relationships have something in common. (other than that they both have “ships” at the end)
They’re tricky little things. So hard to build. So easy to destroy.
I love my friendships, my relationships here. When I came, I knew I’d meet strangers that’d become friends.
I didn’t know I’d make a family. We all knew in the beginning that we’d have to leave.
That we couldn’t stay. Friendships and relationships are tricky things.
They make you do things that you’d never do for anyone else. I’ll miss you all.
Kayleen Knapp’s College Essay If you could change three things in the world, what would they be, and why?
If I could change three things in the world, the first would be the situation in Syria. Syria is a
country located just off the top of Eastern Africa, in-‐between Turkey and Iraq. Syria is a country that,
under the rule of Bashar al-‐Assad, a man who bought his presidency after his father’s death (basically a
government that claims to have presidency, but is actually a monarchy) Bashar al-‐Assad’s brother,
Bassel, was originally going to be president and Bashar was going to be a dentist. But then Bassel died
and basically Bashar was given a country as a graduation present.
Bashar rules his country with an iron fist, and in the most accurate and simple terms possible,
Syria soldiers are Nazis and Bashar is a Hitler. Over 20,000 people have been killed so far ever since the
Syrian Rebellion has become a reality. In just one massacre, 100 people were killed and more than 40
were children. Syria has been in a Civil War ever since March 15, 2011, but has just recently announced
it to be official this month. The reason why America hasn’t been able to interfere is because Syria’s
biggest allies are Russia and China. With China, since we’re in debt, we really don’t wanna’ push their
buttons, and with Russia… It’s just awkward because they have nuclear war heads and we have nuclear
war heads… So I’d like to change the situation in Syria to be peaceful and without Bashar al-‐Assad
ruling.
Secondly, I’d like to change the practice of the death penalty. The death penalty is very racist,
first of all, since more than 50% are black people (but hey, 2% are Native American, yay!).
And though the death penalty may be peaceful here, a painless shot here, a pill that’ll kill you there, but
in places like Iraq, you’re tied to a tree and shot many, many, MAAAANNNNY times. So, it’s inhumane.
Also, a doctor has to present at every death penalty. What ever happened to “will do no harm”? Aren’t
they breaking the rules that way? And lastly, if you’re killed to kill someone, then the guy who performs
the death penalty WOULD ALSO get the death penalty. Hypocrites!!
Kayleen Knapp’s College Essay
Thirdly, on a much less depressing/serious note, I’d like to throw away the laws of space and
time and meet dead people! Like Albert Einstein! Or George Washington! Sitting Bull! Wouldn’t it be
cool to talk to them? I think it’d be cool. There’s plenty of heroes and role models here in present day
America, and the world, but then they go and they do some sort of mistake that ruins their whole life.
For example: Tiger Woods and his affair. Though the affair did help remind us how bad lying and
disloyalty are, it still just totally destroyed most peoples’ sense of admiration for him and gave the world
one less hero to look up to. The people I’ve just suggested are much better role models, but since they
haven’t been in modern circumstances and people don’t get a newspaper reading “PLATO FINDS OUT
THE ANSWER TO THE SECRET OF LIFE” or something, we usually get textbooks that make these people
sound absolutely boring. Therefore, it makes sense, in my mind at least, we should be able to bring
these secretly awesome people back to life. Because I for one, would love to wake up listening to
Mozart composing, as Monet paints my front yard garden, Einstein makes a mess of papers and theories
in the guest room, and Julia Childs making me pancakes for breakfast.
Bringing back the world’s awesomest people back to life would be so cool. :D