We are all walking around on each other's crusts. Mistaking the managed surface for the person. The cost of holding yourself together so well is that no one knows to hold you.

The objective was to deconstruct "Goblin Mode"—Oxford’s 2022 Word of the Year—moving beyond its surface-level definition of laziness. I wanted to explore it as a legitimate psychological rebellion against the "perpetual performance" of modern life, specifically within the high-pressure context of the Singapore expat community.