Perceived: To Be or Not to Be? (Part One)
I've had this one in my heart for a long time, friends. (This post and another one that is coming very soon.) I feel like I've been dragging my feet because I'm scared I won't say all the things I want to say or I won't get the words out right or I'll sound crazy babbling... I'm going to try anyway. I have to. It's time. I spend a lot of time thinking. About life. About myself. About God. About things I wish were different. About things I miss or would do differently. I spend a lot of time overthinking and analyzing what I've said or how it might have been received. I like to think that I'm decently self-aware, so it wasn't a newsflash to me when I realized that I like attention and seek validation. For so many of my youngest years, I was shy and quiet. Back then, I probably liked attention for behaving "correctly" and sought validation that I was following the rules and doing things "right". (Lots of things make sense to...
