They say the Apple doesn't fall far from the tree,
But I have tried so hard to just be free.
Trapped in the life that was killing me.

I thought to myself "I can't be a kid anymore"
As I listened for the front door.
Thinking they'd take us away
My mother knew just what to say.
Locked in my room
Knowing I was forever in doom.
Crying myself to sleep that night
I had to eventually turn out the light.

When you're a kid, they tell you it's all...
Grow up, get a job, get married, get a house, have a kid, and not to stall.
But the truth is, the world is so much stranger and darker.
Taking care of the house like a mother
So young, I matured.
So so very young.

Responsibility was the foundation of my life.
My mother never was the idea wife.
From taking care of myself and my brother
I acted more of a caretaker than a sister.
Cleaning, cooking, sewing, fixing
I did it all. I did it all.

In those moments, I realized I wasn't a kid.
I wasn't like the rest of the girls my age.
I just wanted to be off the grid.
It felt as if I was a bird in a cage.

Wild and free
Oh how I would've love to be.
Day after day with no end in sight.
How I envied the birds in their beautiful flight.
A magical world now lost to dreams,
Replaced by life's unbending themes.

"I love you," she says.
The words no more than a habit.
I refused to become the fool she is.
If I wanted change I had to reach out and grab it.
Frustrated by my blindness
And things I can not see.
Sometimes driven crazy
By the things that make me, me.

For now I know,
Growing up so fast was just meant to be.
I can be a star I know I am and continue to glow.
For now I have at last broken free.