[Spoken Intro — quiet, weathered, reflective] At thirteen, I didn't think about growing up. Didn't think about becoming a woman. I just thought I'd be me... only a bit bigger. [Verse 1] At thirteen I told my mother, “When I grow up, I want a brick house.” Tall and solid, pretty to my eyes... well, that was all I had worked out. Our little fibro home was built by Dad, with his own two hands, but brick looked fancy to a kid who didn't understand much else. [Verse 2] I knew I wanted to teach somebody, though I never called it a career. I liked helping people figure things out, making the muddled bits more clear. I didn't picture classrooms, didn't think about the years, I just knew I wanted to help someone... and that was plenty enough right there. [Chorus] I had no picture of the woman, no map of where I'd go, no thought about the years ahead, no way for me to know. I wasn't dreaming of a future, I was just growing through... life was busy doing the teaching of the woman I grew into. [Verse 3] I never thought about the car I'd drive, or money put away. Didn't give a thought to grown-up things that fill a grown-up day. I couldn't see myself at fifty, couldn't picture what I'd be. Somewhere up ahead, I figured, there'd just be a bigger me. [Verse 4] I didn't know the days could change you, or years could leave their scars. Didn't know some roads would knock you down or make you who you are. I didn't know that hearts could break, or strength could have a cost. Life taught me with the things it gave and taught me with the things I lost. [Chorus] I had no picture of the woman, no map of where I'd go, no thought about the years ahead, no way for me to know. I wasn't dreaming of a future, I was just growing through... life was busy doing the teaching of the woman I grew into. [Bridge — spoken, intimate, almost conversational] I thought growing up meant getting bigger. That's all a young girl knows. You wake up one day and you're taller... then older... then somehow you've got wrinkles you don't remember ordering. But nobody tells you that life is going to teach you who you are. It just hands you the days. And you live 'em. [Verse 5] So here I am... that little girl is still in me. The one who wanted brick and mortar and somewhere she could teach. She never saw this woman coming, never had a clue she'd be here. She just kept putting one foot down, one ordinary year after year. [Final Chorus — build gently] I had no picture of the woman, no map of who I'd be. I had two small dreams... a brick-built house, a way to teach, and that was enough for me. I never got that brick-built house, but I got a life somehow. And the girl who thought she'd just grow bigger is standing here right now. [Outro — stripped back, emotional] I didn't choose the woman first. I didn't know her name. Life just kept handing me the days... and I kept walking through them. It taught me how to stand. How to bend. How to change. It taught me that some things stay, and some things don't. And somewhere in all those years... that little girl grew up. She didn't become the woman she'd imagined. She became the woman life made of her. And you know what? I think that little girl would recognise me. [Final line — very quiet] Because underneath it all... I'm still me. Just a whole lot bigger.
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