Captain, surely they cannot expect me to lead.

Surely there will be instructions left for me.

This ocean is vast and will swallow you whole

surely a child isn’t meant to battle it alone.

Alone, I wasn’t when I met you,

empowered and grateful and always true.

For the first time in 15 years I felt at peace,

like someone understood, someone felt my needs.

Someone looked at me not for what they could gain

but with belief in my strength and the greatness within.

I may not have always reacted appropriately but love was always given it grasped me so tight,

I couldn’t breathe. I didn’t know what it was then it was foreign to me.

23 years on this earth and as I look back

I'm oh so thankful for the weight you placed on my back.

Captain, surely you cannot expect me to lead..

but that was my calling and you saw that in me.

Mended my belief in what I could do

inspired me to be a woman that’s honest and true.

Dedicated to my cause as I follow your lead,

now doing the very thing that you once did for me.

It may seem like nothing to you when you picked me,

and it's just that fact that would make me disagree.

People would often mistake you for my mother..

Little did they know you were gifted as one from another.

So O'Captain my coach, as you were to me,

only with time would I be able to see, 

that by granting me the honor of leading my team, 

You've shaped a career and saved me.