The exam

I admit to being frustrated at showing up for the CADC exam, and no-one having the password to get me into the exam itself.  I was surrounded by younger women and men taking placement tests, and from the sounds of it, not doing very well.  Reading, writing, math, the three r*s they used to call them.  Me?  I was the age of all the women behind the desk.  When I finished the exam and ok*d the results to be printed, they*d all seen the results before I left the testing room.  If they*d had champagne, they would have popped the cork and served it then and there.  Yep, I might frame the paper if only to honor those testing center women.

If I*d thought about it

I would not have chosen

The week before classes begin

To take my credentialing exam.

The computers were filled

With young men and women

In their late teens and twenties

Placement testing

For reading,

Writing,

Arithmetic,

The three r*s

Which are barely that.

The air was thick.

The women behind the testing center desks

Were my age.

They could not find the password

To get me into my exam.

I waited.

And waited.

And waited.

When I finally took the exam

And passed,

The women were there waiting for me.

They waited to congratulate me.

Five women

Sitting in a circle behind the testing center desks

Waited to hand me my printout,

Almost a diploma.

Five women

Found the stamp in the drawer,

Stamped it in red with date and place.

I may frame it.