i have a bad habit of not talking to people unless they talk to me. i tell myself i'm just respecting space, but sometimes it's fear. fear of bothering them, of saying the wrong thing, of feeling unwanted. so i stay quiet, even when i want to reach out. i wait for messages, for someone to check on me first. but silence can build distance too. people assume i'm okay being alone, even when i'm not. i think i learned this from people who made me feel unheard. when i tried before, it felt like i didn't matter, so i slowly stopped trying. now i'm just trying to unlearn it again, little by little.