Everyone says that change is hard

However necessary to sustain life.

It takes persistence when your way is barred.

It takes diligence and a bit of strife.

 

The words they say don’t say it fully.

Change is not always just about mental vigor.

In order to embrace it wholly,

It takes more than just some rigor.

 

Sometimes it takes pieces of your soul

Straight out of your innermost places.

It takes wondering if you’ll ever be whole

Or if you just another one of those lost cases.

 

It takes nearly submitting yourself to the fact

That you are the lowliest filth on the earth.

It takes being too terrified to act.

It takes misjudging your own worth.

 

It takes hiding your violent emotional blight

So that others won’t see that awful fear.

It takes crying on your floor at night

Quietly so nobody will hear.

 

It takes trying to get everyone to like you

In hopes that at least one person will.

It takes doing what you're asked to do

All the while feeling like you’re swimming uphill.

 

It takes looking at that pocket knife in your hand

Wishing your pain could be manifest on your skin.

Then you set it back on your nightstand

Knowing that that’s not the way to win.

 

It takes begging God with tears in your eyes

To take away your self-inflicted pain.

It takes remembering when you were a bit more wise

And had the world to gain.

 

And during all this, it takes not losing sight

Of your true and living goal

To find yourself and do what’s right

And finally, take control.

 

It takes being at your very worst

And still not giving everything up.

For though time cannot be reversed

Hope can overcome any holdup.

 

So when they say that change is rough

And takes a bit of persistence,

What they say is true enough

But words and reality often stand at a distance.