Let's Get Fucked Up and Live

The other day, a friend of mine sent me a song by Motion City Soundtrack called "Let's Get Fucked Up and Die." He told me this song basically summed up his existence. I listened to the song over and over and poured over the lyrics until my heart couldn't take it anymore. How could I tell him that life doesn't have to be this way? That "fucking up" doesn't mean you have to die. I was so angry and hurt for my friend that he wasn't more angry and hurt himself for living that way. I couldn't take this being the only option: to get fucked up and die. So here is my response. Watch the original song. Read my poem. You can get fucked up and live.




Let's Get Fucked Up and Live

“Let’s get fucked up and die.”
The cry of my generation.
“Let’s get fucked up and die.” Because what do we have to live for really?
We live for parents, and teachers, and tests.
We live for ACTs, and SATs, and DDs on the weekends.
We live with ADD, and ADHD, and labels that we take to heart.
I am what you define me as.
I am inadequate, unmotivated, a slave to my emotions and immaturity.

“Let’s get fucked up and die.” Because we can’t get fucked up and live.
Can we?
We are the generation of Experiencers. We can’t be persuaded until we’ve pursued.
We can be told until we’ve tried.
We are the culmination of our experiences.
And when we find ourselves failing, falling, and fucking up,
Well it’s easiest just to die.

We can’t get fucked up and live, because then we might be expected to learn from our mistakes.
To live would mean we’d have to move on. To fuck up again.
And really, how much can one person take?
How much can one person change?
“I’m about to explode.
I’m a mess, I’m a wreck.”
Will you be the one to pick up my pieces?
Like the egg on a wall, will you be there after I fall?

Or will you point and say, “It’s what we expected.”
I will not point. I will not let you lay shattered on the ground.
I will not define or label you.
I believe you can change.
I believe you can fuck up and live.
That our fuck ups are hiccups, and back-ups, and turns in the road.
But they aren’t a dead end.
You don’t have to die.

I believe you can overcome this and beat everything in the end.
You have to stop choosing the abuse, the self-hate, the parent-hate, the God-hate, the everyone in the world wants me to fail so FUCK YOU I WILL!-hate.
You can win. If you decide not to die.