pride

It can feel so good, so empowering, that little defense mechanism we call pride: it makes you invincible and impervious to anything that anyone could do to possibly hurt you. And when the day is over, you get to walk away intact without so much as a glance backwards, head held high, never showing a single sign of weakness, never letting on that maybe you're not really okay. That maybe despite your best defenses, you slipped and you fell... just a little bit. Maybe you even convince yourself. Or maybe deep down you know it hurts, but none of that seems to matter when pride is at stake. It's like some bizarre cartoon where you throw your heart and your reason up in the air and run diving to catch your pride.

The thing is, when does pride cross the line from self-protection to shutting everyone out? How do you know when you've gone too far and your preemptive barriers, intended only to block out the bad, block out everything and everyone? You sit inside your walls... alone with your pride. And maybe that's what ends up hurting the most.