I am pacing And I'm tripping on my words like untied shoelaces ‘Cause I've lost my simple mind just trying to earn your smile But does the truth mean the same thing in my mouth As when I shouted it out so young and proud? I am just a well-dressed liar Leaving bouquets to throw you off my trail I am taking A long drive down into the deepest part Of my heart and if there's love there I can feel like I am true As clever phrases are rolling off my tongue Like bullets from the barrel of a gun That I've loaded with my old tears I hope that they still seem somewhat sincere Will the kind words I said in the winter still survive Even after those frigid days have closed their eyes? Do the ghosts of your lovers past still haunt your mind? Do they leap from their graves and shout, "We are still alive!"? Am I falling too fast or just losing my mind?

There's a hole between the wall and the edge of my bed And some day soon I'm crawling in And I'm never coming out again ‘Cause I know all about the trouble that comes with making friends So I feel solidarity Only with my former selves They're the only ones that can translate The sound of thoughts rolling around in my restless brain It's not the end of everything we know It's just high school dressed up in college clothes And in every single way that we hoped things would grow They all just stayed the same Everywhere I step there is music But it seems that I'm the only one who hears You play the violin and I'll play the fool And together we'll set a score to these scenes of fear And God, this feeling is so strange Just like I'm sleepwalking in someone else's dream Maybe someday I'll awake To find that my simple thoughts finally make sense to someone It's not the end of everything we know It's just high school dressed up in college clothes And in every single way that we hoped things would grow They all just stayed the same

Did you ever think that we’re all just insane? Playing at life just like a casual game Knowing little other than that we must Adapt or die and be left in the dust? Well I know Well I can see ‘Cause there’s a thousand pairs of eyes and they’re all pointed right at me And now I don’t know what to say And now I’m running away ‘Cause I am starting to shake And now I’m running away ‘Cause I have got no reason to stay Did you ever wake up a brand new gent But wondered just where the old you went? Tried to figure out how the straight and narrow got bent Or from whom this confusion has been sent I don’t know I can’t see ‘Cause there’s a thousand pairs of eyes and they’re all pointed right at me And now I don’t know what to say And now I’m running away ‘Cause I am starting to shake And now I’m running away ‘Cause I have got no reason to stay

The alarm clock rings me right into the next year of my life And my bed collapses underneath the questions on my mind I slide my feet into the shoes that I’ve seen others wear so well And I wonder if someday I too will have stories to tell Of a life so cosmopolitan or all the places I have been A long list of accomplishments to put my heart at ease ‘Cause I caught my reflection in the rear view while I was starting up my car And I remembered just how recently twenty seemed so far off I’m amazed How much has changed When comes the part when I finally feel my age? I am torn between nostalgia for the memories of my past And the promise of prosperity much farther down this path Maturity and love don’t seem so bad till you explain Just how much the simple life I love is gonna have to change I caught my reflection in the rear view while I was starting up my car And I remembered just how recently twenty seemed so far off I’m amazed How much has changed When comes the part when I finally feel my age? You’ve always said I can solve my problems with a good meal and a good night’s sleep But lately I’ve been choking on the shameful taste of all of my defeats I could use some consolation ‘cause I’ve been feeling kind of weak But a heart full up with pride cannot be bought with self pity Oh, but the prayers I used to turn to for some comfort and some peace Got submitted to a god I’ll be surprised to ever meet ‘Cause honey it’s not hell or heaven that has got me wondering It’s the thought that maybe all this time he wasn’t listening But it sure was nice to think he was always on my side I caught my reflection in the rear view while I was starting up my car And I remembered just how recently twenty seemed so far off I’m amazed How much has changed When comes the part when I finally feel my age? The winners always write the history books And the heartbreakers always write the pop song hooks And the sweethearts can always just get by on their looks And the guys like me just struggle with their words But I can hear their words hiding just behind their teeth They’re saying, “Maybe you should just admit defeat And give up your dream” But I say “no” I caught my reflection in the rear view while I was starting up my car And I remembered just how recently twenty seemed so far off I’m amazed How much has changed When comes the part when I finally feel my age?

She wore those glasses every waking day She said they kept her focused on important things And all her friends asked her to come back around When she had her head on straight Days go by She’s don’t cry And she found herself admitting as her days tumbled by That she hadn’t seen the sun in a while Days go by She don’t cry She reached a point in all her pushing when a part of her just died And her luster was obscured as every working day went by And the sun in all her darkness Had the gall to even rise Days go by She don’t cry She reached a point in all her pushing when a part of her just died And her luster was obscured beneath one thousand alibis

Put up with everything and got nothing in return Do I dare, or could you spare Just a moment of your time? Just so I could tell the story of this broken state of mind All you ever did was beg me plead me All I ever hear is that you need me Now that time has gone away And you’ve got nothing You’ve got nothing to say It’s okay, just put me on hold again so I can bury my good intentions And lay all my loving words to rest Is this how you want it? Back on the line Just in time Just so you can turn the tables and break my state of mind All you ever did was beg me plead me All I ever hear is that you need me Now that time has gone away And you’ve got nothing You’ve got nothing to say And I’ve lost all hope Think I’m gonna choke It’s a tight rope act On the line between love and hate And I’m falling I’m falling I’m falling down All you ever did was beg me plead me All I ever hear is that you need me Now that time has gone away And you’ve got nothing You’ve got nothing to say All you ever did was beg me plead me All I ever hear is that you need me Now that time has gone away And you’ve got nothing You’ve got nothing to say

If I play my cards any closer to my chest I'll be walking around with my hand over my heart Like I'm pledging allegiance to my own loneliness And I've been running this race for such a long time Trying to keep my heart out of the way of my mind And I never realized that there was no finish line Some nights the books don't even help So I put them back up on the shelf ‘Cause I've become a parody of myself ‘Cause I've been living alone And eating on my own And waking up to find another day is gone A life lived in absentia And I've been up all night Dreaming of the life The one I thought I'd be living by now An optimist invention I think the rain's been following me around And when it hits my roof it makes such a homely sound Like a round of applause, like I'm suddenly world-renowned Like a friend that only wants to calm me down My words don't always come out so well So I take those books back off the shelf ‘Cause some nights it still beats talking to myself ‘Cause I've been living alone And eating on my own And waking up to find another day is gone A life lived in absentia And I've been up all night Dreaming of the life The one I thought I'd be living by now An optimist invention Now my heart has got dementia You've been saying I'm always too hard on myself But what good am I to anyone else If I don't even have the brains to tell you Why I've been this way so long? The words have been read, the blood has been bled The candles are lit, the table's been set But it doesn't mean a thing to me ‘Cause it hasn't made me feel one bit less lonely ‘Cause I've been living alone And eating on my own And waking up to find another day is gone A life lived in absentia And I've been up all night Dreaming of the life The one I thought I'd be living by now An optimist invention Now my heart has got dementia

They feed you that line from cradle to grave “Just wait until you get to the real world “You think you’ve got it bad, just wait and see Cause in a few more years you’ll be just like me” Tell me, when I get there what's gonna change? Is the world gonna show me all the tricks up its sleeve? ‘Cause from where I'm standing, the world looks pretty real to me I'm so tired of people looking down on me Like wherever they're at is where I need to be If I want to know what it's like to be alive (Can you tell me, baby can you tell me?) So tell me what it is that you’ve got to show Tell me every last thing that I don’t know And stop wasting my time with all your condescension These growing pains Don't get me wrong I don’t claim to know it all I bet I’m getting dumber every day I know I've got so much to learn And all my stripes are as of yet unearned But with all this living left to do All I want to know from you is What part of this ain't real? I'm so tired of people looking down on me Like wherever they're at is where I need to be If I want to know what it's like to be alive (Can you tell me, baby can you tell me?) So tell me what it is that you’ve got to show Tell me every last thing that I don’t know And stop wasting my time with all your condescension These growing pains I'm so tired of people looking down on me Like wherever they're at is where I need to be If I want to know what it's like to be alive (Can you tell me, baby can you tell me?) So tell me what it is that you’ve got to show Tell me every last thing that I don’t know And stop wasting my time with all your condescension These growing pains

Validation, validation, I can't give that to you Someday you'll see that you're the only one who can I just wish you understood How much I wish I could But you're so blind to your own greatness sometimes I lose my mind Just trying to make you see That you already have What you've been trying so hard to find in someone else I can't always speak in poetry But that doesn't mean you can't try and hear me out So don't close your ears when I open up my mouth And less-than-elegant words fall out Friend, please put away that funhouse mirror That tells you all those lies that you don't need to hear I know you always think I'm being insincere But I swear that I mean word I say I just wish you understood by now How happy I am whenever you're around The wool is not over your eyes, you're my friend, you're my friend, you're my friend I can't always speak in poetry But that doesn’t mean you can’t try and hear me out So don't close your ears when I open up my mouth And less-than-elegant words fall out Live is a river and I'm told we should be fishers of men But you're just fishing for compliments And morning came like a freight train through my bed When we had this conversation again

Every day I wonder "what have I got to lose?" But the grooves of my old self are so comfortable and smooth They fit me just right They tear my skin like knives And if there's one thing I've learned all along It’s if you close your eyes the years keep moving on And we have to do more than lay down And let them run us over So how much time am I gonna waste Wearing this frown in such bad taste When I never really needed a reason to be happy before? Because life is not the be all and end all Though it offers so many chances to fall There's some beautiful mystery behind it all And even if I'm wrong I'm still smiling I could fill a book with all the guilt on my mind But what's to be gained from feeling guilty all the time? The blindness and the adolescent rhymes They don't speak to me anymore So how much time am I gonna waste Letting self-deprecation stand in my way When I never really needed a reason to be happy before? And now I think that every minute I've spent worrying Was just a bet on which I could not break even Because we get life so we’ve got something to talk about when we go to heaven If we go to heaven I’ll see you there

I've been dreaming that I was drowning in the sea And every kind word that I ever heard was floating around me And I’m sinking, I am sinking, I am sinking in the thinking of the memories And as they wandered by I tried to quickly snatch them up And stuff them in my pockets but I sadly had no luck So I sank to the bottom with nothing to my name Just photographs to relieve the pain And as I sat there sad and lonely on the ocean floor I watched my life float to the surface and thought, “there must be something more to this ‘living’ thing That I’m just not getting” But with every single day that passed I always found that I still was The only man among some fish and it was all just because I did this to myself Home is gone and there's no going back The thought that confronts me now Is “I've wasted the time I had” All the old familiar places, all these streets won't know my name I'll be somebody different soon Though I wish I could stay the same And now I'm feeling like a child who has not been born Every single day I only wish that I could cut the cord And if there exists a God, he's out there for me to find But closer to home I know that I've got problems wasting all my time Home is gone and there's no going back The thought that confronts me now Is “I've wasted the time I had” All the old familiar places, all these streets won't know my name I'll be somebody different soon Though I wish I could stay the same Now the clock is ticking much too fast ‘Cause these last few years have already passed And these final few moments are slipping through my fingers like sand from the hourglass And the clock is ticking much too slow It shakes in my hands as they prepare to let go But the hands on the clock just won’t let go of mine I'm out of time