«Sitting in front of…» — Summary

Garret SchuelkeContemplative

Sitting in front of my old junior high, feeling good.

Learn Poems app

Try the Learn Poems app

Everything from the website trainer, and more: new exercises, voice recording and sharing, reminders, quick review.

In just three short lines, the speaker tells us where they are and how they feel: sitting in front of their old junior high, feeling good. That's all. There's no story about what happened inside the building and no explanation for the good feeling, which makes the poem's simplicity part of its point.

Junior high is often remembered as an awkward stretch of life, so many readers might expect the speaker to feel nervous, embarrassed, or nostalgic in a bittersweet way. Instead, the poem says plainly that they feel good. The poem doesn't say why, but one way to read it is that the speaker has moved far enough past those years to sit calmly in front of the place, no longer bothered by it.

The mood is relaxed and quietly content. The short lines and plain wording feel like a deep breath, a small moment of peace. The ending, "feeling good," lands without any fuss, and that lightness is what stays with you.

Read also

More by Garret Schuelke

All poems
RomanticGarret Schuelke

* * *

I kiss her, she smiles. We kiss some more.
CheerfulGarret Schuelke

* * *

I don't wanna die in Michigan.
ContemplativeGarret Schuelke

* * *

What kind of world am I growing old in?