Magna cum laude

I've got a pretty piece of paper
Sealed in tempered glass
Hanging on my wall
They told me it was a ticket
On a one way road to success
They told it was a guarantee
But what they didn't tell me:
It was a guarantee
For a life spent slaving for my own greed
Cause it's really just a cog in a machine
That's killing my mother
Just a bullet in a gun pointed straight at my father
Just a fucking collar i get to wear
And you expect me to live like this?
Til' i break my will to see another way
Til' i'm tired, broken and empty just like them
How do i tell them their entire lives were wasted?
Stolen from them by habit and routine
Perpetuated by their desire to breed
In the end am i just a tool
Just a part of their machine?
Now i'm staring at my reflection
And i don't know whether to feel proud or disgusted
And you expect me to live like this:
An old and broken man who said his piece
Who threw out the truth and let it die in the streets
Lived a life that he didn't want
Loved a wife that he'd rather have not
Keeping himself company between worn and weathered sheets
A model constructed to copy and follow
Prescribed lies coated, fucking easy to swallow
Degrees of happiness like shades of gray
Never living a life just filling a series of days
And you expect me to live like this?
And you expect me to live like this?
And you expect me to live like this.