Do you know yourself?

I promise you this, I promise you that.
I say: With this you will be successful,
and with that you will make your dream come true.
I say and say, but what is it that I say?

Do I know what someone's dreams are? Do I know what my dreams are?
How can I say, that someone will be successful, if I in fact lead him to nothing?
But still I keep on saying: I promise you this, I promise you that.

I know what I know, but I don't really know.
In school I answer questions promplty, as soon as told.
I was made to be like that.
Teachers told me to act like this and act like that.
They also promised me this, and promised me that.
With this you will become successful, with this you will become famous, and that is a great innovation.
My rebellion stopped and I became hollow. My mind was their mind, my thoughts their thoughts.
I became one of them.

And I promised this, and promised that,
because it was as normal as it could be,
my teachers did that, my schoolmates as well; I was like them.
We shared every minute with each other, we saw each other everyday,
and with every second my doubts vanished more and more.

But suddenly a teacher, a teacher!, tells us to think for ourselves.
That teacher wants us to think free. And I again started to ask myself: "Is this right?"
I was born equipped with a mind, but since my first day I was never able to make use of it.
I wasn't able to think for myself, to find out what I want for myself,
everything I did was bad, bad, bad - but if I listened, then I was good.

So I listened and listened,
but not to myself, but to other people.
Why does suddenly someone emerge and tells me to think for myself? Now, that getting out seems so impossible, getting out made so impossible?

I never was me after all. I always listened, because I was told to do so,
but now I don't want to anymore. How can I be free, if I cannot be me?
Who am I?
Am I really the name my parents gave me, or am I someone else? I don't know,
but I thought I knew.

I was lost and I'm still lost.
I had a mind, which never was mine.
I was me, although I never knew him.

I'm a stranger to myself. I found out.