The Pause Before the Truth

And next up, they pause before answering, like they're translating themselves.

It's not that you don't know what to say, it's that you know too many things

at once. Someone asks you a simple question, "Are you okay? What do you think?

Why are you quiet?" And there's this small delay in you that people mistake for being calm,

being thoughtful, being mysterious. But inside, it's loud, because the first

answer that rises in you is usually the honest one, and the honest one is risky.

The honest one might be too raw, too heavy, too real. So before it reaches

your mouth, something in you stops it, like a hand on your throat,