The Irrevocable Fear of Being Perceived - by L.

There is a primal terror in being seen. Not just noticed, not just glanced at in passing, but truly perceived—laid bare before the judgment of others. To exist in the minds of people outside of ourselves is to surrender to a narrative we cannot control, to accept our complexity might be reduced to a single characteristic which may define how someone sees us forever. We curate ourselves so carefully, crafting an identity with deliberate precision, choosing words, expressions, and actions that align with the person we believe ourselves to be—or, more truthfully, the person we wish others to see. But the tragedy of perception is that it is not in our hands. No matter how painstakingly we construct our self-image, it is only ever as powerful as the interpretations of those who observe it. Thanks for reading Letters’s Substack! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. And therein lies the fear: What if they see it wrong? What if they take the worst parts of us and make t

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• Olivia Zhu