Lyrics In the Clear - Marc Blitzstein

You learn many things at school--
And some are the empty rule--
And strangely, some are true.
But when you are through with school
A quite other school begins for you.

Growing pains begin with wildly happy first years,
When you still don't know you're you.
Then there come the worst years--
Those you scramble through--

And one day you wake up.
You have lost a certain joy while you've been growing,
You have shed some nameless fear
And you're left with knowing
That you're in the clear.

On that day you're grown up.
There are no fanfares to hear;
You're just in the clear.

You think many things at night
And even will speak them out.
At night they show so plain.
But when the night will have passed,
You'll never admit those things again.

For I tell him, yes, we love your lovely talents
And your charm, it charms us too.
But your charm and talents
Simply happened to you.
Well, they won't see you through.

You're out among bigger boys.
Stop playing with toys.

So I'm in the clear...
Hurray for me.
Does it have to be so lonely?