Quiet Behavior

nobody talks about the emotional labour of modern dating, the constant calibrating, the second guessing, the exhaustion of trying to seem like you have options when really you just want one person to be honest with you. here's what it's actually doing to you. 👇

nobody talks about how your childhood is still quietly running in the background of every relationship you’ve ever had.

boring days, an unknown future, and an irregular sleep, the day pass and nothing new.

there’s this thing you do where you wait to see if people will notice when you go quiet, not to be dramatic, just to know if you matter enough to be checked on. and when they don’t notice you act like you weren’t waiting at all.

Society will tell a young man to man up his whole life and then act surprised when he is emotionally unavailable, struggling alone and has no idea how to ask for help. You cannot raise someone in silence and expect them to know how to speak.

the people who are always checking on everyone else are usually the ones nobody thinks to check on, and they never say anything because they don’t want to be a burden.

we are the most connected generation in history and somehow produced the loneliest, most emotionally unavailable people to ever exist.

if you have to keep asking where you stand with someone, you already have your answer, you just don’t want to accept it yet.

nobody sees what it took to get here, they only see that you made it

you ever lie awake thinking about how different your life would be if you had walked away sooner from certain people and certain situations.

the exhausting part about overthinking isn’t the thinking, it’s that you already know the answer and you’re just looking for a reason not to trust it.

do you ever replay a conversation in your head and realize what you should have said hours after it ended?

realizing the people around you only know the version of you that’s doing okay, nobody’s ever met the real one

loving someone who doesn’t know how to love you back is the loneliest thing you can do to yourself, and the hardest part is you already knew. you just didn’t want to accept it.

nothing hits harder than wanting to share good news and realizing there’s nobody you actually trust enough to call.

when did you start shrinking yourself to make other people comfortable. and at what point did you forget what the full version of you even looked like.

the thoughts that keep you up at night aren’t random. they’re the things you’ve been avoiding all day finally getting their turn.