Is there anything more terrifying than sharing the vulnerable pieces of yourself with someone new?
... I'm sure there are but that's not the point.
It seems crazy that we hand people these treasure maps to ourselves, but the x doesn't mark a chest of gold and instead leads to all of the most fragile parts of our psyche.
We trust these new people with the very parts of ourselves that were once betrayed, fingers crossed that this time it will be different, that this person won't add their own brand of heartache and baggage.
I'm not even talking about romantic relationships, or not totally. We do this with coworkers, new friends, even family members we begin getting closer to. Over and over again we open up, often just a little at a time, and have to hope for the best.
I hate this, and I am honestly really really bad at it. I find it so hard to really trust anyone with anything other than the superficial dribble of everyday life.
Sure, I open up here... under a pen name... with very few links to my real, actual life and people I really, actually know.
Recently I had too much wine, and opened up to a new friend waaaay more than stone cold sober Libby would even day dream of doing. With a laser pointer, pretty highlighters, graphs, flashing neon signs, and one of those airport guys with the cones I showed this person so new in my life a few of the soft squishy bits I prefer to keep hidden.
It didn't seem like much, they made the right sympathetic and supportive comments and will likely never think twice about it, but it is terrifying to me, and will cause my heart to randomly and unexpectedly race on and off for weeks to come.
Not only did I give them ammo, I gave them big, shiny targets.
That's part of life though, of truly living, you have to let people in from time to time. You have to trust your own judgement and their goodness.
(Forgive the typos and errors, this was another late night ramble made on my trusty phone.)
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