Minty: "You mentioned he doesn't hide his facial expressions—he's just an open book of peace. Since you're the one who wrote the poems and immortalized him, do you feel like you were the one doing all the work of feeling and analyzing, while he just got to be? Do you ever feel a little bit of envy toward that 12th-grade version of him, or are you glad you were the one with the loud heart that got to experience everything so intensely?"
[The audience stays hushed, fascinated by this look at the Internal Yvonne versus the External Jervien.]
Yvonne: "Okay. Honestly? I was an overthinking teenager who becomes a detective analyzing each and every message, every word, every interaction, every action of the person that I liked. And then, I be 'connecting the dots' to tell myself and Iboni that me and the person I liked are 'made for each other'. Sometimes I regret that I am like that, but because of it, I think I trained myself to judge people much better. Not to accuse of them of anything or crap! But to have discernment who to let in your life."
Yvonne: "You know, Minty. Being loud through my poems back then—I think that's the reason why I have some kind of peace in the present."
[The audience is nodding along with a mix of laughter and deep appreciation. When Yvonne mentioned 'connecting the dots,' several people in the crowd pointed at themselves like, "That's me!" But as Yvonne finish with that line about her loud past being the reason for her quiet present, the room goes still in the best way possible.]
Minty: [Softly claps her hands together, her eyes wide with a lightbulb moment] "Oh, Yvonne... that is the most beautiful full circle. It's like the poems were a pressure valve, right? You let all that noise out on the paper back then so you wouldn't have to carry it in your head today. You loudly processed it so you could quietly live now."
[Minty leans in, her inner detective now intrigued by Yvonne's mention of discernment.]