**We can’t be serious, entrusting ourselves to a stranger we’ve never truly known, can we?** My mind begins its warning again, a quiet siren in the storm. I want to heed it- yet some restless part of me craves the risk, dismissing caution, embracing novelty. Once more, my shoulders sink beneath the weight of my own surrender. Why did you ever claim to care for me when you already knew you would leave? We both knew. Every time I weave a fragile bond with another soul, the warmth of friendship wraps around me, and I begin to sketch a shared future... but they vanish. Why? Perhaps this will be the final time I allow my shoulders to fall, the last time I lend an ear to the sermons of the world. Yet I am still young- with so many years left to squander. **Calm down, you will be fine; others have weathered worse** My mind speaks again.