What You Want Me to Be

 

You.

You want.

You want me... NO!

You want me to be

What you want me to be.

All I want to do is be me.

 

Pretty, skinny, funny:

What a boy wants me to be.

Intelligent, athletic, high SAT:

What a college wants me to be.

Not stressed, sociable, happy:

What I want me to be.

 

What am I?

Awkward... in a funny way.

Smart... in an arrogant way.

Stressed... in every way.

Trying... to get through the day

Without you telling me what to say.

 

Who are "you"?

I do not know,

But you cannot tell me who I am.

You can only tell me what you want me to be.

Only I can decide whether to give you what you want.

I can decide what I will be.

Pretty? Intelligent? Not stressed?

I decide what to be, what to change, and what is that?

 

Nothing!

You may tell me what to be and I may become those things,

But that is of my own volition, not yours.

I decide what to change or not to change.

I decide.

Me.

 

--Sarah Autry