education with introspectacles

i feel like i've grown up more in the past year than all the others combined.  i've had opportunity to observe how i deal with some aspects of painful and ugly... and it's been educational and fascinating, to say the least.

• if something has me down or depressed for too long, eventually my mind just dumps it, or at least pushes it aside.  staying down for that long would probably literally drive me insane.
• this is a good and useful defense mechanism.  however, sometimes it causes me to move past things too quickly or to leave them where they can rot without me knowing it.  sometimes it also forces me to be a little dishonest with myself.
• almost any amount of pain or other discomfort i feel i will almost always go out of my way to hide, unless i know i can rely on the person i'm with to understand me.  and believe me, after years of practice, i've become a pretty good everyday actress.