Saving Time Through Failure

Looking back convinces me more than before
that when I was young I was stronger than I realized.
When I was resisting the pricks of false propriety,
the rules with nothing but their own force
behind them 'You can't have what you want...
You must do as I say. Blah', I more then survived.
Though it did not feel much like that at the time.
 
But that does nothing change the record.
I am still no more than an 'also-ran',
who gave their little all to prop up a system
that was designed to mis-remember me.
Later, in their own time, the other boys
in my school would become 'also ran's' too.

But I my achievement was saving time
by getting to that stage sooner than they did.