Breaking the Chains

growing up seemed so easy, not so long ago
but then they formed a bubble and chained me in it

they said i had decisions, i could make a choice
but somehow only their way was right and punishment embraced my choice

i know i'm old enough to make choices, i make them every day
but they don't see it that way, or at least they don't act like it

somehow i don't know myself well enough to know when i'm ready and what i want
but they do even though they are hardly ever around me?!

somehow if my choice disagrees with them then i'm turning my back on them
but isn't part of growing up embracing the differences

i didn't know it meant you had to agree with everyone

it feels like they want to yank happiness out from under me
but i will fight this

i am stronger than they think

questioning is a fact of life and in the end it makes you stronger
but apparently it means i'm on a slippery slope

where do they get these ideas?
where does it say truth comes from one book in one building?

i find truth in the most unlikely of places many times
truth will always be right where it began and it is not taken by man and placed into one solitary book or given only in one building or given only to one person

i don't know if they will ever realize i don't let others make decisions for me
i don't know if they will ever realize that i listen to many different people's advice but in the end i make my own choice based on what i feel guided to

i don't know if they realize the choices they are giving me
and i don't know if they see that they are asking me to be a mindless robot

i don't know if they understand they are treating me as a child
i don't know if they realize that independence is independence; there are not multiple definitions: it means you are responsible for yourself

i don't know if they understand that respecting someone does not mean that you do what they say
but it means that you regard their opinion, you listen to it, and then you have to make your own choice whether or not you agree with that respected person

i don't know if they realize they have been losing my respect with the way they have handled this and other things over the years
i don't know if they realize how hard i am trying to make everything work

i don't know that they will be pleased with the way it will come out
but i know that in the end i will have done what i can and maintained what i believe