Growing up is more than drinks and parties
And letting a boy see you without your clothes
People don’t grow like hair and nails but
Like expanding cities, buildings, and roads
It’s not about getting to the finish line first
Finding a job and a man, a mortgage, see,
It’s about liking yourself and where you are
Life’s not a chain, it’s a tapestry

And people don’t dry like paint, they go back and forth
Going out won’t make us like staying in less or more
It’s not black and white, we were given eyes
To see shades of grey and rainbows in the sky
One girl can have a drink, snuggle up, and sing
Heavy metal ballads and sitcom themes
And the world won’t stop: it keeps going

I will always prefer a piano bench over a barstool
But that doesn’t mean I’m swearing off liquor
You can’t write songs just by reading books
Sipping on life is so much quicker
And the world wasn’t just built for two
Life’s not an ad on Craigslist for one bedroom
People can’t be shamed just for marching forward
We can’t wait around once we’re ready to move

And people don’t dry like paint, they go back and forth
Staying in won’t make us like going out less or more
It’s not this or that, we were given lives
To spend with old friends and meet with newer minds
One girl can wear high heels, join the football team
Flirt with all the guys, get a PhD
And the world won’t stop: it keeps going

People don’t live in two dimensions, no
We are Rubik’s cubes, we are 3D
And change is terrifying,
But what’s scarier is not changing.

Take these pearls and see
That people don’t live like that, we don’t age like wine
How you live might be different from how I live mine
We’re not yin and yang, but a Venn diagram
Crossing paths again and again and again and again
And people don’t dry like paint, they go back and forth
Going out won’t make us like staying in less or more
It’s not black and white, we were given eyes
To see shades of grey and rainbows in the sky

One girl can smoke a joint, write a novel
Tweet seven times a day, help her mother clean
Make out with her friends while a bit tipsy
Stay at home and watch some late-night TV
And the world won’t stop: it keeps going…