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What does it take to be independent?

What does it mean to be individual?

Self-sufficient, separate, distinct

Qualities of a mind that's free to think

But do you have strings?

Do you have the strings people tie to you

The kind that bring you down?

How do you know when you're not manipulated?

How do you know when you're in control?

When you're not connected to anyone else

When you're the only one taking care of yourself

Do you see the strings?

Do you see the strings around you, pulling you,

Pulling you together and ripping you apart?

You think you could just live your life

Live it without being used

But society spins a web of control

Set out to entangle you

Wrap you up in the idea

Or what you got to do

To give everyone what they want

Is always pounded into you

I had never given it a second thought

But then again I couldn't see

To become aware of this subtle control

And what living like this was doing to me

Life became just a game

One that I couldn't quite succeed

With all this giving of myself

Left apathy inside of me!

I was just letting them pull my strings

Because they were letting me pull theirs

No win, no lose, no clue

And nothing to chose

Puppets in a play

The strings set the stage

So why does it sound like that life is behind me?

Why do I feel that I'm living free?

'Cause I see through the people who try to use me

See them as the scum that they are

Because I cut the strings

Because I severed the ties to people who played with me

Trying to drag me down!!

No more playing games

No more pulling strings

No more dealing with the bullshit that it brings

If it's a step towards growing up

Then that's another that I'll take

Accepting myself as I am

And rejecting the maneuvering fakes!

No more strings to strangle me

And no way they can hang on