Ode To the Shackled Masses

Birth, school, college, job, family, death.  

From the moment she was born, she was sent as a cog in the machine. 

"Get good grades so you can graduate" They say and the pressure builds up, crushing her chest with the weight of a freight train.  She studies, she endures, she listens, she passes.  And just for a moment, the pressure subsides. 

"Apply to good schools like Harvard and Yale"  The knot in her stomach twists and turns.  She stays up late, she fills out applications, she writes the essays and she drains her bank account.  Only when an acceptance letter from Stanford arrives that she pauses to take a well-earned breath.  

"You have to nail this interview if you want this job"  The voices tear at her mind and she shovels through closets.  A blazer, a skirt, and a plastered-on smile.  She gets the job but just for a while.

"Get married, have children, that's what life is abou—"  
"No!" She screams, breaking the tradition of those that follow her.  She rips off the blazer, the skirt and the smile.  "We have free will, to live and to choose."
"But what is it that you really have to lose?  Everyone follows, they live and they choose."
"They follow you blindly, without thought or without choice.  It is you that gave and then took away their voice!"
"Silly girl, you try and you try, but you'll never escape.  To live and to die, well that is your fate.  Weep if you will, but nothing will change!"
"I will not weep and I will escape.  The others, they follow because they are asleep.  I will release them and save them from fate."
"Dumb, naive, little girl, you still do not understand the point of this all.  The point of fate is that one can never escape.  It's stuck with you forever, unlike a bruise or a scrape.  Try if you will and do as you may, but the others they do not listen to what you have to say."

"Why not?  How come?  I've gotten this far.  There is no commitment.  It's the path we should mar.  Follow me, all, and you can roam free.  Detached from the shackles and together we'll flee."

The masses they charged and broke free of the latter.  They chose, they spoke, they thought their own thoughts, and never once did anyone feel distraught.