[Intro] [Instrumental] [Verse 1] If I had slept less on the mission, I’d be awake in my vision, If I had listened when wisdom whispered through friction, If I had cut the excuses with precision incision, Maybe I’d carry less weight from indecision’s religion. If I had loved harder, hugged longer, called sooner, If I had faced June’s gloom in mid-monsoon, not later, If I had bled honestly rather than bargain with fate, “Be yourself; everyone else is already taken,” Wilde said straight. If I had swallowed my pride instead of pride swallowing me, If I had planted the seed, not just drafted the tree, If I had watered the roots, not photoshopped leaves, I wouldn’t worship the “if,” I’d be living the “be.” “To thine own self be true”—that’s Shakespeare in the margins, But I rehearsed for an audience and forgot who the star is. If I had stayed hungry, stayed foolish, Jobs in the chorus, I’d be feeding the future, not eulogizing the porches. [Hook] Dear me, if I had moved when the road said “go,” If I had told the truth when the mask said “show,” “What is done cannot be undone,” still I own what’s left. Dear me, I can’t rewind, can’t splice time’s reel, But I can edit the scene, frame by frame, for real. If I had… if I had… (if I had...) It is what it is; now watch me give it my all. [Verse 2] If I had carried the “why,” Nietzsche said I could bear any “how,” But I traded my compass for crowds and a comfortable now. If I had fought through the fire, Churchill said “keep going,” But I camped by the caution signs, studied smoke without blowing. If I had counted the costs, not the claps and the clicks, If I had measured the meaning, not the metrics and tricks, If I had made peace with failure as tuition, not doom, I’d have graduated courage from this panic-lit room. If I had written the letter I’m rapping to me today, Maybe yesterday’s version would have found a way. If I had feared less, FDR said fear itself’s the thief, Steals time, steals breath, leaves interest in grief. If I had learned that silence can be loud as a gun, I would’ve spoken in storms, not whispered in sun. If I had seen the mirror as a teammate, not judge, I’d have bench-pressed blame, not let regret be my crutch. [Hook] Dear me, if I had moved when the road said “go,” If I had told the truth when the mask said “show,” “What is done cannot be undone,” still I own what’s left. Dear me, I can’t rewind, can’t splice time’s reel, But I can edit the scene, frame by frame, for real. If I had… if I had… (if I had...) It is what it is; now watch me give it my all. [Bridge] “Time is what we want most, but what we use worst” (hey) I was spending tomorrow just to rent back then (hey) “I am the master of my fate; the captain of my soul” Henley rings— So I’ll pilot through the storm with these ink-stitched wings. [Hook] Dear me, if I had moved when the road said “go,” If I had told the truth when the mask said “show,” “What is done cannot be undone,” still I own what’s left. Dear me, I can’t rewind, can’t splice time’s reel, But I can edit the scene, frame by frame, for real. If I had… if I had… (if I had...) It is what it is; now watch me give it my all. [Outro] If I had… if I had… (if I had...) It is what it is; now watch me give it my all.
