Prisoner in Disguise

For so long he felt trapped, lost in the pretending. He stopped looking for reassurances or any sort of real acknowledgement of the reality of the situation and accepted the superficial pretense that she was not killing him softly with her needs. He looks back on his life and sees that it has always been this way. The more he was himself, the less he received from others. The stronger he showed he was, the more people came around him for help. The more independent he appeared, the more people came to depend on him. No one saw the little boy inside wondering why people could not see him. No one seemed to care if he needed or wanted anything. Feeling trapped in loneliness, he never realized how free he was.