To Whom It May Concern:

What I am doing here is not for you

Not for your judgment or your appraisal

Not for your assessment or your arousal

No boy I know has ever been told he shouldn't play

Couldn't play

I am no longer interested in shouldn'ts

Or couldn'ts

Or rules not written for me

I am not worried about getting too big or too strong

Or too fast

Or too full of myself

I do not agree that "playing like a man" is a compliment

What I am doing here is not

For

You

Movement

Is a movement

My effort, my ambition, my desire

For me

For every woman, every girl

Who dares to see herself as something more

Than a body to be rated

A score to be kept

When I play, I keep my own score

When I play, I know who I am

When I play, I forget how it feels to be boxed in

To be boxed out

When I play, I feel no shame

When I play, I remember

How it feels

To be free

This court

This field

This world

Too small to hold me

When I play I know I won't be undone

I won't be unsung

My humility

My humanity

My movement a movement

This is not the end of my dream

This

Is where I

Wake Up