Author's Note: Song is mostly unrelated, it's just the kind of bitterness that this poem reminds me of.

Start by finding your passion,

what you want to do,

and bury it six feet deep.

Take a knife and split yourself open,

find every soft and honest part of you,

and cut it out, replace it with steel,

until you’re more machine than flesh.

Build your ten year plan,

your future goals,

just make sure not to be too happy,

not to believe in people too much.

Either would slow you down.

Burn your empathy,

drown your soul,

hide what’s left of you that’s human,

hide it so well you forget it’s there,

and then maybe,

you’ll survive this generation.