We learn before we're even full grown that we can't afford to be vulnerable to the world. Not unless we want to be pounded into applesauce.
Worse still, we're told that gentleness is weakness, that love is just asking for grief, that generosity is fecklessness, that openness is cruisin' for a bruisin'. We're told that it's right to be smart, strong, tough, guarded, and independent. That's being grown-up; anything else is stupid kid stuff. Anything else is just asking for trouble. Anything else is holding out your heart to be drop-kicked across the room.
— Molly Wolf, Hiding in Plain Sight