Can parents ever understand
Why we do the things we do
Rebelling against their wicked ways
Maybe getting that strange tattoo

Carousing away the night with friends
Fighting vicious for the last few beers
While the warnings our parents have given us
Ring unheard in our deaf ears

We race our cars
And squeal our tires,
We make our own fun
And burn our own fires

The sun is shining
And we'll sit here in the grass,
We can't stay among these desks
Locked behind this one-way glass

We must be free
To explore and seek
Stuck inside our young spirits
Grow tired and weak

We have imagination
And creative genius
You don't know this but we do
And we think "If you'd only seen us!"

Conformity, regulations and rules
Politics, laws, and policy
These try to bind and keep us safe
But for ourselves we must try and see

No warning or sticker
Decree or label
These won't stop us
We're willing and able

We smoke and drink
And act carefree
We choose our own roads
We are being who we want to be

We went the extra mile
No one pushed us this far
Others may have added
But we made us who we are

The grown-ups can't understand
And call us "Generation X"
They think our morals have decayed
Lost in drugs, booze, and sex

But if they took a closer look
To see us eye to eye
We'd show them in ourselves
We still have what money can't buy

Our parents try to deal with
Us doing what we must
Unlike the tricycle from days gone by
We won't stay and gather rust

We have to see this world of ours
Beyond the scope of hate
We'll stop going in circles now
If you just give us the other skate

And there'll be times we take a fall
And hit our asses hard
But like the clever poker player
We'll smile and play another card

We're trying hard to change the world
And here we start in school
We'll bend, break, take and remake
Every single stupid rule

We'll fight the power
And damn the man
We'll hail as one
Be proud and stand

No one will make fun of us
For being who we are
No one try and shade our light;
It's like trying to hide a flaming star

In this chaotic world of ours
We're bound to find real life
Every day we'll surely face
Tortured past and constant strife

But these are things
To make us strong and grow
And to the standards forced on us
We'll strike a crippling blow

Out beyond the rising sun
Between dreams and high hope
We'll strive to be our best each day
And sail the sea in our white boat

On brown and green sway grass hills
And pebble white-sand beaches
In towering gray super-structures
To the planet's farthest reaches

We enter now a new place in life
Right between Hell and Heaven
And the only request we make of you
Is to get ready for the seniors of '97