Pink Floyd - Another Brick in the Wall

One of my favourite songs to jam out to with my daughter is Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall." When I was younger I love it because it pissed my teachers off. And it was good stoner music. But as I listen to the song now. It really makes a lot more sense as an adult.

Most of my time in school (I imagine many have had a similar experience) was spent preparing to get a job. Whether that job is what I wanted to or would've even been good at it, seemed irrelevant to my teachers. Everything in school happened so fast. I was always doing a test, studying for a test, playing sports, or doing some other school activity. That I never stopped to ask myself. "What do I really want out of life?"

I think that's a question that isn't really encouraged (at least not in my school). Too often it seemed like everyone had an opinion about me and my talents. Or just wanted to live vicariously through me. As if my teachers or family could rewrite their own mistakes and regrets.

When I listen to that song and sing it with my daughter as I'm dropping her off for kindergarten. I think to myself that everyone seemed to want me to fit into their idea of how the world should be. To make me just another brick in the wall.

That's not what I want for her. I don't want her to ever feel like she has to conform to someone else's standards or ideas. Not even me.

So when we both laugh and sing "Hey! Teach! Leave those kids alone!" I am hoping to help her develop an indomitable spirit in her. That teaches her not to just be a background character in her own life.

As the great Willian Ernest Henley said in his poem Invictus:

"It matters not how straight the gate,

How charged with punishments the scroll,

I am the master of my fate,

I am the captain of my soul."