Trying to be the perfect daughter

Verse 1

I learned early how to stay quiet

How to smile when it hurt inside

I read the room like a warning sign

Tried to be wrong only at the right times

I wore your hopes like a second skin

Told myself this is how love begins

If I could just be good enough

Maybe I’d finally feel your love

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Chorus

I’m trying to be your perfect daughter

Carrying weight I never chose

Smiling through the cracks and water

Breaking just so no one knows

I’m everything you wanted me to be

Except the girl I’m supposed to be for me

⸻

Verse 2

I became strong where I should’ve cried

Said “I’m fine” like a practiced lie

Every mirror felt like a test

Every step had to be my best

I thought love was something earned

By the lessons I never learned

I held myself together tight

Just to make it through another night

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Chorus

I’m trying to be your perfect daughter

Carrying weight I never chose

Smiling through the cracks and water

Breaking just so no one knows

I’m everything you wanted me to be

Except the girl I’m supposed to be for me

⸻

Bridge

Maybe it wasn’t meant to be this hard

Maybe I took it too far

I was just a kid with a fragile heart

Trying to play a grown-up part

I don’t hate you, I don’t blame

I just got lost inside the name

Of who I thought I had to be

To deserve to be loved completely

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Final Chorus

I was trying to be your perfect daughter

Carrying weight I never chose

Now I’m rising from that water

Letting myself finally show

I’m not everything you wanted me to be

But I’m becoming who I need

⸻

Ending

I don’t need to be your perfect daughter

I can finally let it go

I’m done carrying that water

I’m choosing me, and now I know