“Eleven” by Sandra Cisneros
What they don’t understand about birthdays and what they never tell you is that when
you’re eleven, you’re also ten, and nine, and eight, and seven, and six, and five, and four,
and three, and two, and one. And when you wake up on your eleventh birthday you
expect to feel eleven, but you don’t. You open your eyes and everything’s just like
yesterday, only it’s today. And you don’t feel eleven at all. You feel like you’re still ten.
And you are—underneath the year that makes you eleven.












