I am still shaped by things I rarely mention

Dear Delyara, There are wounds in me that no one would be able to identify by looking at my life now. I work. I function. I speak well enough. I know how to seem stable. But I am still shaped by things I rarely mention. They live in how fast I apologize. In how much I over-explain. In how hard it is for me to believe kindness without questioning it. In how quickly my body prepares for withdrawal, criticism, or disappointment. This is what old pain does when it isn’t resolved by time alone. It becomes architecture.