I've been told my voice travels
That my voice is naturally loud
People say I'm one to speak out
I pronounce my words proudly
But only when there's a crowd of
Friendly faces and the topic
Is nothing big or heavy.
But me? To me...personally
I think my voice is so small
I think it's so small
but it's so loud when I greet you
I'll shake your hand firmly and tell you
that it's so nice to meet you
and I'll tell you my name and age and major and my year
but in reality my voice is so small with a drudging fear
that you'll be judging me here as I speak
and my voice so small—it's so weak
It comes out in a whisper after I hear
the taunts of that same fear saying
“don't say anything
you'll make a mistake and
ruin your reputation”
and all this time I'm thinking to myself: I have a reputation?
I have a reputation?
and I just become more self-conscious
feeling like a novice, looking for someone's solace
but instead I see
the image of me fearing
the mockery of these strangers
that I don't even know.

But hey, I'm loud and obnoxious,
but not just when I meet you
but when I'm kidding too. 
I'll joke around
and poke fun about you,
 it's all fun and games when the topic's shallow. 
But if you dig deeper,
if you ask me something serious,
if you ask me something serious,
if you ask me something serious...
the caterpillars of familiar uneasiness
takes home in my queasy stomach
and form cocoons of timid shyness, that
soon butterflies of cowardice accumulate in my stomach
and they flutter that it tickles up to my throat which
causes me to..uhm.. t-...to..uh..to... stutter
and I can't get my words out
I can't get my words out,
I can't get my words out of my mouth
and it's not that I'm speechless, but that my speech is less
than what it could be, that my speech is normally of a
higher vocabulary instead of "uhhs" "uhmms" and "yeahs".
and I lose my voice so fast,
And my voice is so small.