In our culture today, we are all about

“Success, success, success”

And when we fall from that pedestal we took so long

So many “golden opportunities”

So many hard-working hours on too little pay

To mold from the dirt and grime from the folds in our hands and clothing

We are told to

“Pick ourselves up by our bootstraps!”

 

But I never understood that saying.

I always pictured myself wearing those rubber rain boots

With small left and right loops

On each shoe

And bending over

Grabbing one of my boots by both of the handles; and

Tugging.

 

Now this is where is doesn’t seem right to me

How am I supposed to climb back up to the top of my pedestal

When I’m standing here tugging on a shoe

Just because someone told me to?

 

I’ve always imagined it doing nothing but making me fall over once again

As my foot lifts and my knee bends

And I fall on the cold concrete and hit my head.

 

So what do I do instead?

 

I learned one day in class that scientists think we have been social animals

Since the very beginning of evolution to tonight

 

So why

Do we keep telling each other to

“Walk the path less traveled on”

When the others I rely on

Have gone a different route?

 

I am told I am already going the road most traveled,

But I can’t tell that I’m there because I don’t see it

I don’t see it

I don’t see it

I don’t see a point in making a turn off a road I don’t believe is even there to begin with

To create something different

 

Why do we keep telling each other to go alone

Into the concrete jungle we call home

In a giant world just waiting to crush our bones

Into bread for the next morning?

 

I’ll carve my own path right here, thank you very much

I’ll carve my own winding way right on top of the one you say

I’m already following.

 

So here I am, along with so many other depressed next-gens

With debt waiting for them

Because our economy hasn’t fully recovered from your recession

Now this is our broken dystopia, and you may be trying to make utopia

But I’m sorry to say, but we’re done waiting for ya

 

We have carved our names into our path

With the remnants of media-hyped and yet non-existent

Tide Pod challenges

And Promising Futures.

 

Our system of democracy

Has downgraded to mediocracy.

 

Because

“College College College!”

Is all that matters,

When a degree

Doesn’t actually guarantee

A job in this society

 

But we willingly throw down thousands of G’s

To try and achieve

A level

Worthy of a pedestal

Of which to fall from

 

And as the ground climbs its way back at us

The Gen-Z

We don’t take out our phone for one last selfie

(Which has never defined any of our personalities)

We smile down at the grinning concrete

Welcoming the feeling of what it actually means to be free

Just before we receive

A reality that only was dreamed between dreams

 

And the asphalt black opens its teeth

To swallow the life of yet another teen.

 

In our culture today, we are all about

“Success, success, success”

And when we fall from that pedestal we waited so long

To jump from.

 

You will realize. We may have built this hazard,

But you were the one to push, before even showing us that there was a ladder.