Why hello there!
Long time no see
I know I've missed you
Have you missed me?

I'm sorry I left
Without warning or trace
But I had to learn
To not be more than a face

How to write for myself
Instead of the world
Or at least have a shift
In the world that I wrote

But I'd really love
To come back today
Because oh, trust me
I have a lot to say

How does one survive this endless trail
Filled with broken dreams and empty promises?
Why do we suffer through life's cruel game
When we don't even know if we can win?

I believe the answer is the uncertainty
Curiosity may sometimes **** the cat
But in this situation it saves it
Because we know that this could be for nothing
But how could one risk giving up on something
That could be something special

As for what may come, we can never know
So we live to find out
If for nothing else
Then for the thrill of the mystery

Life doesn’t forget about you
It just lets you off your leash
To see what you can do on your own

And though you may sometimes
Still wish you lad the leash
Every once in a while it reminds you
How great things can be without it

Live for the reminders
That your life is yours
And you’ll learn that the nights
Of fearing the future
And cursing the card you’ve been dealt
Are not your story
The reminders are

Eventually someone sees you
And that someone will make you see
That all those years
Where you felt like no one
Were nothing more than a blip
On your timeline

All you have to do
Is hold on until they find you

For days we waste as we countdown the time
For screaming whispers from dreamers broken
For those trying to get there words to rhyme
Waiting for the day their door can open
Do not forget to live, and live for now
To skip through all this time there is no way
Forget the whos. And whens, and whys, and hows
Take on the world that you can for today
That distant life needs a place to start from
Take a breath, look around, your time will come

We are the kids who demanded to be heard
Instead of being pitied
Who took matters into our own hands
When those above us didn’t seem to help

We are the kids
Who forgot to be kids
Because we were focused
On solving the problems
That shouldn’t be ours to solve
But we saw that those with power
Clearly weren’t going to use it

We are the kids that took action
So that you could save your thoughts and prayers
Because we saw those thoughts were gonna be needed
If you can’t see the need for change
And prayers are useless when the answer is already here

We are the kids who weren’t aloud to be sheltered
Because we were the targets
And when we were supposed to be calculating the various measurements
Of a circle
We were practicing barricading the doors
And discussing the fastest points of exit

We are the kids
Who had to turn on the news
And find out that 17 of us were dead

And 83 more of us have been gunned down since that day
Only just over 2 months ago
And that number has yet to stop growing

We are the kids
Who were afraid to walk into school
And now scan every classroom
For something to protect ourselves with
Because we are afraid
That we might be next

And then we were the kids
Who still had to fight to be listened to
Because a statement on piece of paper
Written over 200 years ago
Deserved more protection than our lives

And we are the kids
Who will make sure
We are the last of these kids

I’m not sure I know how to be myself anymore
I speak words that I think are my own
But when they come out
They sound as though they were carefully crafted
By someone who is desperate to fit in
Even though that’s something I never thought I cared about
But now I can’t stop myself from warping into this shell of person
Who once was an original

Who once was someone
I took pride in being