I Quit Being a Puppet in a Puppet Show

I feel like I have lived my whole life like a puppet dancing in someone else's palm.
Moving, laughing, and crying just as I was expected to in someone else's story.
As if it were my own will. Pretending not to notice that I was exhausted.

But then, I suddenly realized.
That simply continuing to dance under the stage lights according to the script
would never fulfill my heart.
I have decided that I want to step down from this puppet stage.
I want to know what it feels like to stand on my own two feet and move by my own will.
I don't know if I can walk well yet; it might be awkward.
But at the very least, I have stepped off someone else's stage and am starting to walk on my own.
I have stopped dancing in someone else's palm for the sake of someone else's ideal world.

You who have read this text may also have felt crushed by someone else's expectations deep in your heart, or lived while enduring pain and suffocation all alone.
I believe that was the pain of living while hiding your true self.

We are not puppets meant only to please others.
Beyond the happiness we feel in our hearts, others can find their own smiles.
So, even if it is scary, let's take a step toward living by our own will.
To paint our own lives with our own hands.