Cinderella pauses to reflect before the glass slipper, whilst the duck gazes quietly at it.
All this time,
I believed that true happiness would follow if I became rich, achieved success, gained honour and was loved.
But standing before this immense wealth and power,
I realise that joy is fleeting;
I feel I am beginning to understand that within it lie a loneliness and emptiness deeper than I imagined, along with the agonising torment one must endure to hold onto that position.
And I realise that it can crumble at any moment, and that this alone
can never resolve the fundamental problem.