Rich, white, and smothered in opportunity

From the day we exit the womb

We are sucked into the whirlwind

We are the future, we are the hope

We hold the world in our hands

But telling us to be smart, to be intelligent, to “think better”

Isn’t going to make us want to change the world

 

Some of us are brilliant                                                         

And some of us hide behind a façade of big words

Regardless, we are all shuttled through the same halls with the same 4.0 goals

But what is it worth if we are all sick?

Sick with the expectations, sick with the pressure

Sick with the stress and the exhaustion and the inability to escape

 

When we leave, if we have nothing but a fancy diploma and bags under our eyes

What does our future look?

It looks like wrinkles and blocked arteries

Tired, angry politicians and lawyers

Who sweep their depression under the rug of the daily grind

 

If we know how to analyze a book till we are blue in the face

But can’t look a person in the eye and tell them how we feel

Then what was the whole thing for?

Was it so we could earn the right to condescend?

To get the big office with the beautiful window that we will never take the time to really look out?

 

Teach us to care

Teach us to find a problem and fix it

Teach us we are not all the same and can’t all be the best

Teach us that our job is to make this place beautiful

And learning in the traditional sense is only one of the ways to do that

So let us choose our own

 

I want to be smart, I want to be loving, I want to be worldly

And I want someone who can teach me ALL those things

Not just one

We are rich, white, and smothered with opportunities

So why are we the unhappiest, most depressed, and sleep-deprived group of people I know?

There’s the problem we should really be studying.