They tell us to live our lives but they give us so little time to do just that placed under the constant constraint of rules and laws how is that living? living is to be free but there is no time for that. living is to be alive in all ways but they give us no time for that. when life stops my ticking clock, will i be satisfied? satisfied with every tick mark, every minute on that clock, because in those minute marks are countless nights of fun, laughter, and heartbreak, in those minutes, I lived. but will the minutes i spent doing what i was told to do, or even made to do take over? will they outweigh the times i was truly free? will any of it matter? if only i could stop my ticking clock to go back and count, count and get an overall calculation. but i keep living. never stopping until my clock stops. no time to go back.