My parents said, “you can be anything”

and instead of hearing freedom,

I heard shackles.

I didn't know

what “anything” meant.

So how could I become it?

They said, “you can do anything”

and instead I heard:

“do everything,”

“be everything,”

“do it right,”

“you have to find the right thing.”

My mother told me that I had endless potential,

and all I heard was:

“don't screw up,”

“don't waste time,”

“do something meaningful.”

My father said, “you can have any job you want”

and what I heard was:

“pick the right one,”

“don't do something stupid,”

“don't waste my money, or our time.”

I found a passion and I said,

“this is what I want to do”

and my parents said

“no,

not that,”

“that's stupid,”

“you can't do that,”

“pick something else.”

So I did, I found something esteemed,

something with potential to make money,

and my parents said,

“no,

not that,”

“you're too stupid for that”

“you don't work hard enough to get that.”

There was no way to win or make them proud

I couldn't find what “anything” was

and everything I picked

somehow didn't qualify.

I didn't know what I was supposed to do.

So instead of trying to be “anything”

or trying to reach their

“endless potential”

I developed passions

on my own

and worked to turn

the nothing that they saw, into something.