People really just want to get to know you at the end of the day. I had to learn to -NOT- attach a spike to my shield when talking with people. I had to re-evaluate almost everything in the last few years. It's been rough.

I try to keep to a basic core tenet, though. If I have the ability to overthink or think too literally, then most people do too. I developed this weird sense of audacity to assume that most people are simple creatures with nothing beyond surface thoughts. It's wrong and silly to think like that. I had to reconcile what I believed in my heart, and what was swimming around in my head. When I started to reduce that "audacity" I had developed, love started to take its place little by little. If love could fill my heart just the same as audacity can, then most people have that ability too.

I still have my spiked shield on my back, so to speak, but I don't use it that often, if at all. Gotta save that shit for when it really matters.