Burnout doesn’t announce itself — it creeps in quietly, until every day feels the same and even breathing feels like effort. You start going through the motions, disconnected from your own life, wondering when the passion turned to numbness. This piece exposes that slow unraveling, told through the voices of students drowning in deadlines and silence. It’s not just about school — it’s about survival.

What started as a journal in 2020 became a yearly ritual — part poetry, part protest, part personal release. In this 2022 entry, I reflect on a world still unraveling. From rising political tension and women’s rights being stripped away, to war, inflation, and the lingering shadow of COVID-19, this is a spoken word-style chronicle of the moments that broke us, shaped us, and dared us to keep going. Written through tears, anger, and unfiltered truth, this is not a news report — it’s how it felt to survive another year.

Told through the voice of a politically aware 16-year-old in a conservative household, this raw and rhythmic reflection captures the chaos, grief, and confusion of 2020. From pandemic panic to political unrest, racial reckoning to virtual graduations, this piece is a time capsule — one girl’s attempt to make sense of a world on fire. It’s history, spoken like a story — messy, emotional, and painfully real.