everyone is as real as they can be until it terrifies them
some people only let parts of them surface
the parts that won’t get punished, abandoned, or misunderstood
we tend to build entire lives around staying safe from our own depth

we learn to numb and we fear to touch
we learn to perform instead of connect and exist
we speak in tones that won’t shake the walls around us
even if those walls are caging us in

we become masters of being enough but not too much
and stifling our growth and capacity to live