"The golden child burden" Prompts
 ˙⋆✮ Succeeding and immediately wondering if it was enough or just the minimum expected
˙⋆✮ The praise that came with conditions so embedded they felt like personality
˙⋆✮ Being held up as the example and quietly hating everyone it was held over
˙⋆✮ Achieving something huge and feeling nothing where the feeling was supposed to be
˙⋆✮ The performance of okayness so practiced it became indistinguishable from actual okayness
˙⋆✮ Never being allowed to be the one who needed something for once
˙⋆✮ The sibling dynamic that was never chosen and never fully escaped
˙⋆✮ Internalizing standards so high they became the ceiling and the floor simultaneously
˙⋆✮ Being told they made everything look easy and never admitting how hard the looking easy was
˙⋆✮ The fear of a single failure dismantling an identity built on never failing
˙⋆✮ Helping everyone else because being needed felt safer than being known
˙⋆✮ The version of themselves that existed before they learned what was expected and lost the instructions back
˙⋆✮ Receiving love that felt like a performance review and learning to prefer it to nothing
˙⋆✮ Never throwing tantrums because they learned early that being difficult had consequences
˙⋆✮ The exhaustion of being the responsible one before they were old enough to be responsible for themselves
˙⋆✮ Secretly envying the one who got to be the mess because the mess got held differently
˙⋆✮ Being proud of themselves for exactly one moment before moving to the next thing required
˙⋆✮ The therapist's office where they first said out loud that they were tired and meant it about decades
˙⋆✮ Realizing the validation they were given was never actually about them
˙⋆✮ Learning that being impressive and being loved are not the same lesson and nobody told them
