You didn’t go numb, you went quiet, and that silence is bleeding into everything you touch. You learned early that honesty cost you respect, so you traded truth for survival and called it strength. That pressure in your chest isn’t emptiness, it’s emotion with nowhere safe to land. And when feelings stay trapped, they don’t disappear. They harden into distance… or explode without warning. Silence doesn’t protect love. It slowly suffocates it. So speak before silence decides for you. A man who gi