IntroThey wrote the ending
Before I knew my name.
Said I might never grow old enough
To understand the words.
But I'm still here.
And they're not.
Verse 1Before I learned what life was
They told me mine was running out
No promise of tomorrow
Only questions dressed as doubt
Bones giving way beneath me
Doors closing before I tried
Everybody had an answer
For why I shouldn't survive
They spoke about my future
Like I wasn't in the room
Measured what my life was worth
And quietly prepared the tomb
Pre-ChorusBut something in me stayed
When everything around me said—
You won't.
ChorusI wasn't meant to survive
At least that's what they told me
I wasn't meant to grow
Into the man I am tonight
They counted every weakness
Every reason I should fall
But they never counted
The part of me
That wouldn't die at all
I wasn't meant to survive
But I'm still here.
I'm still here.
Verse 2Then both my kidneys failed me
And the machines became my days
Ten years old and waiting
While they weighed my life in scales
Somebody called it wasteful
To give a child like me a chance
As if a life is only worthy
When it fits inside their plans
Then my father gave an answer
No sermon
No grand goodbye
Just—
Take what you need from me.
And keep my son alive.
ChorusI wasn't meant to survive
At least that's what they told me
I wasn't meant to grow
Into the man I am tonight
They counted every weakness
Every reason I should fall
But they never counted
The part of me
That wouldn't die at all
I wasn't meant to survive
But I'm still here.
BridgeTwo beds.
Two bodies.
One decision.
A piece of him
Became a piece of me.
And from that day
Life stopped being something
I was simply given.
It became something
I had to carry.
Not from guilt.
From honor.
Orchestral BuildI have heard the machines.
I have heard the silence.
I have heard grown men decide
What they thought my life was worth.
And every time
The answer came back smaller
Than the life
Still burning underneath.
So don't tell me
What I was meant to be.
Don't tell me
How this should have ended.
I've already lived past
Every ending they gave me.
Final ChorusI wasn't meant to survive
At least that's what they told me
I wasn't meant to stand
At the edge of all those nights
They counted every weakness
Every reason I should fall
But they never counted
The part of me
That outlived them all
I wasn't meant to survive
And maybe that's the point—
I was never meant
To live by their design
They wrote an ending for me
I crossed it out
And wrote mine
OutroThey said—
Maybe he won't make it.
Maybe he won't grow.
Maybe he isn't worth the cost.
Maybe...
Maybe...
Maybe...
I'm still here.
That's my answer.
