I’ve always been hard on myself,
But it was never a factor beyond my own expectations.
Until the world became rushed…
It wasn’t just my own pressures anymore; it became universal.
A world chasing perfection,
all under a minute.
Hesitation isn’t an option.
You’re told “when you fall, get back up.”
But what they don’t tell you is,
there’s no time to fall;
No space to clean the cut.
Learning is grimy,
But the mess got replaced
It’s no longer wanted…
Maybe it was never wanted.
I was always told my beauty was within my flaws,
but I guess times change.
The world at the tip of my fingers,
tangible, yet unreal.
I ask, it answers.
Why take the time to understand
when a screen already knows?
The devil on my shoulder
whispers a soft hum of answers.
The angel is then silenced,
waiting for space to speak.
Falling behind when the world races ahead,
I’m running in my world,
but walking in ours.
How do I catch up?
I don’t,
AI does.
AI doesn’t get tired;
it lacks the feeling of failure
The feeling, humans know well.
Students.
Teachers.
Workers.
We all struggle in silence.
But AI.
It’s clean, while we’re dirty.
Polished, while we collect rust
but we’re real
And it can’t say the same
“Artificial intelligence,”
exactly that:
artificial.
Fake.
Not real.
We feel.
We fail.
We dream
We might not be perfect,
but we were never meant to be.
So,
Remove the question:
“Why try next to AI?”
Instead ask:
“How do I remain human beside it?”
After all,
The tortoise did always beat the hare.
(By Sierra Wells ’27)