I don't respond well to mixed messages

They tell me I have to be better.

I sit there learning day after day

Spending hours studying, analyzing, rehearsing,

Breathing.

They told me to take a break.

Why? So I can be lapped?

So I can be beaten, burned, surpassed?

So I can lose?

They tell me I have to do better.

How much longer can I sit here

Trying to absorb this profound sense of knowledge?

I've worked so hard, how much more?

Do I dare ask?

They told me I work too hard.

Damn straight I do,

I didn't spend all my time learning,

Working, exercising mind and body,

To be told 

"You work too hard, take a break."

I told them they missed the memo.

To stop trying is to stop living,

Struggling to achieve makes the reward

Taste, feel, seem infinitely better.

Don't hand it to me.

Don't stand in my way.

Because I'm like a steamroller, 

I will run you down, 

And take what I earned.