Hindsight is 2020 5

Poetry

Like many others, I often go through life without truly living it. This year, more than ever before, I felt the necessity of taking the reins of my lived experience. Routine and stability were disrupted; foundational regulations dismantled. For a brief moment, being alive seemed of sole importance. This is a reminder, most of all to myself, not to play around with what time there is left. This poem literally exists on my phone as a reminder - after sketching it out by hand, I transcribed it onto my android's memo app to easily screenshot and upload it online.

A promise: to live life and feast to the fullest; not knowing how, to grow until I do.

This piece was made as part of ENO's Lockdown Aria challenge. Children and young people across the country made work inspired by the concept of an Aria "a single character sharing their inner emotional world and thoughts with an audience."

The work was created as part of Arts Council England's The Way I See It project which captures the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic on the lives of children and young people, articulated in their own voices, through their own creativity.

English National Opera is the national opera company dedicated to one simple aim: making opera for everyone.