Catherine's "Life" is about the pressure to be a perfect person while still being yourself. The first half repeats the advice the speaker was given growing up: be strong but gentle, beautiful yet humble, happy but calm, and always smile. Each pair asks for two things that pull against each other, so the "rules" feel impossible before the speaker even says so.
Then the tone shifts. "But how / they never told me" is where frustration breaks through. The speaker asks how to become all of these things and still be true to herself. She says she tries, but then admits that "try isnt worth anything," which leads to the final, painful question: "so am I?" The poem suggests she measures her own value by whether she succeeds.
The mood is raw, uncertain, and a little sad. The plain wording, loose punctuation, and a few typos make it feel like an honest, unpolished confession rather than a carefully smoothed-over one.