It starts early in life, 

A choice between two ways, two things, 

And we know which we want, 

But we begin to doubt. 

What will they think? 

How will they judge? 

We choose one … for them, 

And not what we wanted. 

We regret the choice, but say nothing, 

Imagining what the other way might have been like. 

And some of us never stop, 

Never stop making choices for them. 

What will they think? 

How will they judge? 

And we choose what we do not want again and again,

Passing up what we desired, 

Never realizing that it does not matter 

What they think, 

How they judge. 

Our choices are our own or they are not choices, 

But a prison in which we’ve allowed ourselves to be trapped.