[Intro] I wear confidence like a coat from someone taller The cuffs fall over my hands When I try to gesture naturally In every room I become aware of my breathing As if everyone else inherited instructions I somehow misplaced [Verse] The diplomas on the wall Look decorative, not persuasive My name sounds strange Attached to anything accomplished I speak carefully Arranging each word like fragile glassware Hoping no one notices The tremor in the tray Someone asks what I think And the air goes paper-thin I offer an answer polished enough To survive the table Then spend the evening picking it apart Like a crow worrying something bright It doesn’t understand [Pre-Chorus] Meanwhile Everyone else seems so naturally inhabited As if they were poured cleanly into themselves And I am still adjusting mirrors Trying to recognize The person in motion [Chorus] I am a cardboard cathedral Painted to resemble stone A rented suit Smiling in permanent good lighting An understudy called onstage too early Reciting lines While staring into the heat Every compliment feels like an administrative error Every success A receipt printed for the wrong customer I keep expecting a hand on my shoulder A quiet apology A request to return the name badge [Verse] I have mistaken preparation for belonging So many times Built careful ladders out of overthinking And caffeine Learned to make uncertainty sound articulate Learned to nod At exactly the right moments Sometimes I imagine confidence Is just a private accent Something other people learned in childhood Without noticing While I still translate myself internally Before every ordinary sentence [Bridge] Maybe everyone has a hidden room like this A place where their voice hangs its head in the closet Maybe certainty is often just good posture Maybe grace is what trembling looks like From far away [Final Chorus] I am still the cardboard cathedral But the roof has survived difficult weather Still the understudy But I know the shape of the stage now The trembling never meant I was unworthy Only that I cared what could be lost Even fragile things cross difficult distances Even uncertain voices fill a room
