I appreciate you taking the time to share your history and thoughts about vulnerability, friend! It was nice hearing more about your backstory with it, and the updates in how your thinking has changed since our last conversation. Visa was right, we were both right! ❤️
I loved this essay Josh! Thank you for being *vulnerable* enough to write about it. This line early on stood out to me, "I didn’t know how to be vulnerable correctly. They didn’t know how to receive vulnerability correctly." Funny how that does seem to be true when we're young, but there's also this constant relearning as we get older. My heart ached when you talked about the FI meeting (which...FI people tend to be [REDACTED]) and I respect the woman for setting a boundary but also that's such a tough thing to hear. I'm not good at being vulnerable and if someone told me it was too much I would cry and never share my feelings again.
What a great reflection on your growth here! I do think it's important to learn our own boundaries when it comes to sharing and receiving other people's BIG THINGS. I also agree that love is unconditional and while we can want to grow and be better, that shouldn't be tied with the end goal of receiving more love. Ideally, it's a partnership that develops as we grow and learn. Thank you for writing and sharing!
Plus, idk, it's easier to say stuff to a word document, as opposed to someone right in front of you that can see your micro-expressions and watch you stumble through your sentences..
> I also agree that love is unconditional and while we can want to grow and be better, that shouldn't be tied with the end goal of receiving more love
haha yes, I'm exactly like that! And creating has been a big exercise in vulnerability for me. When my sister and I started our podcast, she was always willing to share anything and everything and I've always been more guarded. When I started writing, I assumed it would be digestions of self help books I read and semi rants on technology. It's funny now to see that so many of my essays are personal. But to your point, "objectively vulnerable" ideas aren't necessarily always pushing me as much as I could be. I'm lucking I have people who encourage me to open up more in my writing. Some of my most vulnerable pieces still gave me a "vulnerability hangover" as soon as I hit send though. I think what keeps me going is seeing how much that openness resonates with so many people who then share their own similar stories. The biggest irony is that being vulnerable opens up space for others to being vulnerable, but like you highlighted, there's a learning curve!
Looking forward to more of your vulnerable pieces! To the extent that you're comfortable sharing haha.
I appreciate you taking the time to share your history and thoughts about vulnerability, friend! It was nice hearing more about your backstory with it, and the updates in how your thinking has changed since our last conversation. Visa was right, we were both right! ❤️
I loved this essay Josh! Thank you for being *vulnerable* enough to write about it. This line early on stood out to me, "I didn’t know how to be vulnerable correctly. They didn’t know how to receive vulnerability correctly." Funny how that does seem to be true when we're young, but there's also this constant relearning as we get older. My heart ached when you talked about the FI meeting (which...FI people tend to be [REDACTED]) and I respect the woman for setting a boundary but also that's such a tough thing to hear. I'm not good at being vulnerable and if someone told me it was too much I would cry and never share my feelings again.
What a great reflection on your growth here! I do think it's important to learn our own boundaries when it comes to sharing and receiving other people's BIG THINGS. I also agree that love is unconditional and while we can want to grow and be better, that shouldn't be tied with the end goal of receiving more love. Ideally, it's a partnership that develops as we grow and learn. Thank you for writing and sharing!
> I'm not good at being vulnerable and if someone told me it was too much I would cry and never share my feelings again.
At first, my knee-jerk reaction to this was, "uhh, what?? I doubt that! You've talked about your emotions plenty of times!"
And then I thought about it and realized you might do the same thing I do: I'm pretty good at transcribing my emotions and putting them out there. And it might *seem* like I'm revealing some of my vulnerable feelings because some of the stuff I shared is objectively vulnerable... but subjectively, I'm more comfortable with those feelings than the average person. What you don't see is the stuff I'm legitimately afraid to share online lol, and a lot of that is dating stuff (Coming Soon© to a theatre near you)
Plus, idk, it's easier to say stuff to a word document, as opposed to someone right in front of you that can see your micro-expressions and watch you stumble through your sentences..
> I also agree that love is unconditional and while we can want to grow and be better, that shouldn't be tied with the end goal of receiving more love
surprised_pikachu.gif 😂
Glad you enjoyed it!!
haha yes, I'm exactly like that! And creating has been a big exercise in vulnerability for me. When my sister and I started our podcast, she was always willing to share anything and everything and I've always been more guarded. When I started writing, I assumed it would be digestions of self help books I read and semi rants on technology. It's funny now to see that so many of my essays are personal. But to your point, "objectively vulnerable" ideas aren't necessarily always pushing me as much as I could be. I'm lucking I have people who encourage me to open up more in my writing. Some of my most vulnerable pieces still gave me a "vulnerability hangover" as soon as I hit send though. I think what keeps me going is seeing how much that openness resonates with so many people who then share their own similar stories. The biggest irony is that being vulnerable opens up space for others to being vulnerable, but like you highlighted, there's a learning curve!
Looking forward to more of your vulnerable pieces! To the extent that you're comfortable sharing haha.
I like this line
"Good vulnerability teases around the rules."