When

When did it become okay

To stay awake till five

Thirty minutes of sleep

Became enough

As long as our homework was done

When did it become okay

For a teacher to yell

Or slam a book on a desk

When he had a bad morning

When did it become okay

To not eat breakfast or dinner

Food is less important

Than the grades for school

When did it become okay

To brainwash kids into feeling

Things that they don't want to

If we don't want to go to college

Why is that a crime?

I want to travel the country

See the beaches in California

Taste the rain in Europe

Smell the freedom in the Amazon

Just be free to explore

What's so wrong with me

Not wanting to waste four years

To get a career I don't want

And go in debt in the process

Why must I choose my life's ambition

Before I can even vote

Maybe I want to drink a beer

And mull the options over

When did it become okay

To pressure kids into choosing

To tell them to make adult decisions

While you still treat them like they're five

Teenagers just want freedom

They want to live a little

Don't look down on our decision to do so

Just because you accepted the life that was handed to you.

We live in a world that questions

We breathe in through the pain

We've all experienced difficulty

Before we struggle to live a life that others forced us into

Let us learn what happiness is

So that we know what it is when we find it.