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Confined
I judge you, you judge me
Putting each other in boxes
Of what we think we should be
Following the age-old rules
What lunch table I sit at, what group you're in
The clothes I wear, the parties you attend
I judge you, you judge me
I call you names behind your back
You laugh about me behind your hands
We pretend we don’t play games of attack
When forced together, we don’t take a stand
We sit in our boxes and stay behind lines
We wear masks and lie that everything's fine
I judge you, you judge me
I wish you were kinder
You wish I were cooler
We’ll say “Don’t mind her”
We act as if we know one another
You’re good at sports
I’m good at theater
She’s friends with them
He’s dating her
I judge you, you judge me
I box you up in what you’re good at
I box you up and compare you to myself
You’re beautiful, my chest’s too flat
You’re intelligent, while I need help
I categorize you by the friends you have
I categorize you for the things you say
I categorize you as so much better than me
I judge you, you judge me
I judge the parts of you that don’t deserve to be
You judge the parts of me that you don’t understand
Both of us our foolish, hiding behind our hands
If we stepped out of boxes or looked past our lines
Maybe we’d see more than the signs that say “Everything’s fine”
That’s a lie
No one is fine
No one is fair to themselves
Every box I force you into walls me in too
I judge myself, you judge yourself
Both of us need to be freed from the places we’re shelved
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Everyone talks about how teens (and girls especially) spend a ton of time judging each other in high school. What they forget to mention is how often those judgments on others are then turned on ourselves. She's pretty-- I wish I were like that. She's mean to me-- but I want her to like me anyway. And every teenager that you think is fine, all the girls that you spend high school wishing you were, they aren't fine and they are spending high school wishing they were you.