There was a bulletin board set against an off white wall.

I was very familiar with it but the content routinely changed.

Sometimes incomparable month to month.

Decor changing with the seasons as someone dressed it up.

Hidden behind where the office door when opened.

Missed unless you knew where to look.

***

It was more than a useless display but the use lay with the viewer.

It was a high school job offer board but could be so much more.

Holding everything from Cutco scam jobs to promising internships to minimum wage at the local ice cream shop, the imagination was set ablaze.

Each one a possible opportunity.

A promise of the future.

A path offered to the viewer.

***

But I could take none.

All crossed from my soul.

Disability barriers causing none to be compatible.

An opportunity that was not mine to hold.

A future not reserved for me.

A path with one too many steps.

***

That hope still burned bright in me however.

I stayed familiar with that board hung up on the wall.

Expecting a different result to meet me when I pushed through that door.

What might the student counselors have seen?

Seeing a disabled girl coming in time after time to peer at tiny pinned script.

I like to think it was the hope and not the sorrow.