My mother once told me   The thicker your skin   The better off you'll be when this world brings you down   Well it's trying to control me   And leave me without hope   In the past I've been burned   But I've lived and I've learned      Beneath the shelter of the pouring rain   In the absence of this fear and pain   I will finally bid my ball and chain   A fond farewell      On the road that leads me to my place   I will rid my heart of past disgrace   I will finally bid this sluggish pace   A fond farewell      When I heard their reservations   When I read their bitter words   I shined a light upon their wisdom no matter how absurd   And it broke my heard to pieces   And I questioned my own beliefs   My dignity was gone   But it's time to move on      Chorus      Say goodbye to feeling sorry for myself   To begging others for far too much help   This is my hand, these are the cards that I've been dealt   Only I can make these changes, nobody else   Say goodbye to those sleepless nights   Those corridors with no end in sight   A driven man with these words I write   I'm making peace with my soul tonight      Chorus