another person’s attempt to change you

their desire for you to be less self-expressed

less potent

less YOU

is nothing more than an indication

that they deeply crave to be just as self-expressed

(whatever that looks like for them)

but instead of choosing that for themselves

(which they can do at any time)

they try to diminish it in you

(like they’ve been doing to themselves)

to cope with the pain of that perpetual self-denial

that excruciating and ever-present pain

of rejecting

and denying

the fullness of who they are

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