In high school, they told me you gotta go to college Because those blue-collar jobs don't exist anymore In college, I learned that a four-year degree Is about as useful as a high school diploma was before
Some of my friends got jobs in coffee shops Some fell to making music or writing poems Some took out loans and went back to school Some of them just went home
Me, I was afraid of getting stuck Everybody said don't get anybody pregnant And don't get a job in front of a computer screen
Not yet Not yet Not yet
You've got your whole life ahead of you Enjoy it while you still can That's what everybody told me as if youth were the last Gasp inside a plastic bag So I clung to my freedom greedily
I cut up all the credit cards they sent me I kept my distance from long-term leases I wanted a dog, but I never got one
I left my options open for so long So long, they started drying out When someone suggested I stick around I'm not ready
Not yet Not yet Not yet
I was proud of having nothing but a bed in the back of my truck And a coleman stove And a sleeping bag almost nothing that I couldn't give up
I could do almost anything I Wanted, I could drive down to mexico mañana But I found myself wishing I had a little more that I could hold onto I wanted something that I can't let Go, or replace at the next sinclair There's a girl I miss
With silver streaks In her hair Making me wish I was there
I pull off the interstate, and drive to her house Park at the curb and try to get a grip I curl my knuckles and I hitch up my heart And knock on her front door
It's me, I say, smiling blindly Feeling familiar and out of sorts I recognize the smell of her cigarettes And some of the same plants on her front porch
I jiggle the doorknob and say, let me in I hear muffled voices and shuffled steps Then she says, no, don't come in I'm not ready, not yet