Analysis Of Tracy Bollinger's Poem 'Expiration Date'

Growing up can be very difficult, however there ways to make it easier on yourself. In the poem “Expiration Date”. Tracy Bollinger examines the steps a person to needs take in order to make growing up easier, but not necessarily more enjoyable. The speaker in the poem is informing people on how they should grow up. The speaker also provides a multitude of things that a person who is growing should and should not do. The speaker describes multiple ways to make life not more enjoyable but easier. Through this poem, Bollinger both bitterly and critically states how a person should grow up as well as what restraints they should put on themselves to make growing and their lives easier, but maybe not more enjoyable.
In the beginning of the poem in stanza I the speaker talks about things individuals should do in order to make their life and growing up easier. When the speaker says,”Train, the one good eye to stay awake”(1.3). The speaker means that people should try to make growing up simpler by doing small things that will benefit them later. In the second stanza the message that is conveyed by Bollinger is that a person needs to give up certain things to grow up.
When Bollinger creates the correlation with these two stanzas she expresses that a person should do to plan ahead or watch out for when growing up. For example when Bollinger writes, “take advantage of gravity/And momentum looks good anyway”(4.2-3). Bollinger provides an example of something that people should take advantage of in order to make growing older that much easier. At the end of the poem in the final stanza Bollinger writes about how a person should finalize the act of growing up. When Bollinger writes, “Pretend you’re not regretful or stuck”(5.3). Bollinger essentially states that in order to finalize growing up people need to do things such as, fake that they are happy even if they