First year

I miss the labs, I really do, The days of being fresh and new, When innocence was still a shield, And youth had promises to yield.

I miss the glow, the sudden grace, Of seeing my crush in that old space, The simple joy, the electric touch, The little things that meant so much.

Ambition then was wild and bright, Uncertainty a thrilling light, But now those dreams have lost their trust, Turned to a spectacle of dust.

I feel so old, though youth remains, A fragile fable bound in chains, My hopes are gone, the illusions broke, As harsh reality awoke.

The change is swift, the shift unkind, From living labs we left behind, To counting zeros, counting ones, Beneath the cold, unchanging suns. I long for what I did not prize, Now seen through older, clearer eyes, To want the past is all I can— But that is just the nature of man.