“I do know I appreciate explicitness (in terms of directness and clarity) in my interactions and get quite impatient and at times anxious when people are coy or vague. And the root of that is what you say - feeling as if I don’t have agency to navigate the interaction in a way that makes me feel secure or empowered. I’m not against playfulness or teasing, but I do find some of those interactions inevitably happen at the expense of someone else, and I try my best to be aware of those dynamics with others and within myself.”
— S to me via email (24 Dec 2018)
“I, too, deeply appreciate explicitness in my interactions with people. I hate the games that we seemed to be forced into by societal constructs. And I, too, find that I get anxious and unsettled when interactions and intentions are not made clear. And you are right, these all stems from an inability to have agency to navigate interactions in a manner where I feel secure and empowered. Thank you for giving me the words to understand and explain my discomfort.”
