Life tried hard to teach me this lesson, but I’m a little hardheaded. I spent years trying to fit and worrying about what other people thought before I got strong enough to want authenticity more than approval. Sometimes that means being willing to flip the bird to anyone who says you can’t be yourself.

Life is short. People ought to be able to live their own truth and find their own peace and serenity. Most of us feel like misfits at some point, even if we don’t say it out loud. That’s part of being human. This song is about making peace with who I am and hoping somebody else finds their own peace too.

Lyrics

I never fit the frame they built
Never matched the mold
Felt like I walk in boots
On someone else's road
I learned to laugh at the right times
And nod like I was fine
But I was always half a step
Outside the welcome sign

I'm a driftwood misfit
What ya see is what ya get
No pretense, no pretendin'
Ain't been covered over yet
No gimmicks, no fake in me
No costume I put on
Just sole to soil, skin to sun
And the truth I'm standin' on

I spent my life in clothes
That never felt right
Tryin' to make my edges smooth
So I could pass in softer light
But I got tired of wearin' lies
To make the truth less hard
Tired of hidin' who I was
Like shame could be my guard

There's a peace in standin' bare assed
Where the wind can call your name
Not lewd, not crude, just honest
No costume, ain't no shame
Every breeze across my skin
Whispers I'm alive and free
No gimmicks, no fake in me
Real, genuine, and free

My revolt ain't all rage and thunder
My serenity ain't weak
It's knowin' I don't have to beg
For the right to simply be
Maybe I was never lost
Maybe I was carried
Maybe every lonely mile
Was teachin' me I was free to be

I'm a driftwood misfit
Washed but not undone
Weathered by the muddy water
Warmed by the morning sun
No pretense, not pretendin'
No borrowed life to counterfeit
Just sole to soil, skin to sun
A bare-boned kind of grit

This song ain't about me bein' naked
It's about us all bein' free
Whatever makes you different
You got the right to be