My family and society told me to, “Just be me.”
As they proceeded to tell me who I had to be.
They pulled out the blueprints, they pulled out the plans,
They gave me a list full of ‘you can’t’ and ‘you can’s.

All of the things they told me to be… it ended up being one big catastrophe
As my mom argued for a doctor, society battled for a nail salon worker.
My family called me an A Honor Roll student, a future doctor or lawyer, a leader.
Society called me the nerd, the flat nosed dog eater.

Society, you call everyone nasty names. You wanted everyone to be one person.
Wanted everyone to be the spitting image of a Barbie doll.
You called it perfection.
You said perfection meant you had no need of correction.
You were the best and you were wanted.
It meant that you were worthy to be flaunted.

I knew you once… When we you held the reigns.
All that did was cause more pain.
When I left you, you couldn’t stand me.
You tried to beat me, tried to brand me.
My happiness is what you despised.
It was something you couldn’t plagiarize.
You could not take it from me without my permission.
You could not copy and paste to make it your own possession.

You claimed that my eyes were far too small to see anything, but I could see well that
trying to be the same person causes insanity because all it does
Is kill individuality.

You said to be free, I had to fit a mold.
You ingrained in my head “You must not be brave. You must not be bold.”
You placed labels on my skin like a barcode dictating what I was and how much I was worth.
But I wasn’t something to be sold.

My parents came here to start anew. To build a better future for not only me, but you.
And this, this is how you repay them, society?
By not accepting that there is a variety of colors, and faces, and cultures.

Home of the free and the land of the brave, but isn’t freedom still all that we crave?
Being dictated by people we don’t even know. This isn’t even us, it’s all just a show.

My family would scold me at this moment, telling me to sit down and be quiet.
Not anymore, because inside there’s a riot.
My soul is being pulled apart in all directions wanting to please,
But I also want to put my own self at ease.

If you’re keeping scores, Society, you’re at zero,
and If pennies were points, I’d have enough money for a vacation in Rio de Janeiro.
Father and Mother, I respectfully decline, this is not your fate, but it is mine.

I will say what I want.
I will be who I want to be.
And if you say you don’t like that,
Then you don’t deserve to know me.