Let me build my own shelter, don't do it for me.

I was thinking about this on more than one occasion today. I absolutely dislike it when people try to protect you from seeing things or hearing things or understanding things that THEY don't think you should see or hear or understand or be aware of. That's my decision to make, not theirs. My curiosity yearns to be satiated and most often, I will find out that someone tried to keep something from me, I will satisfy my curiosity, and I will have some resentment built onto that for the simple fact that it's no one's right to tell me what I can and can't be aware of in this world.

I don't like being lied to, and purposely keeping information away from me is pretty much the equivalent of that. I was sheltered for a great deal of my childhood, and I consider myself to still be a pretty sheltered person in comparison to a lot of other people in this world. But if you really knew me, you would know that this is a quality I want nothing more than to change. I hate that I grew up so unaware of what was outside of my bubble, and I work every day to turn that around.

So whether it be something minuscule or something huge, I don't want it to be kept from me in an effort to "protect me" or "shelter me" because those are all just more positive connotations of "I'm hiding the truth from you." I'm a strong girl and it's no one's place to decide if I'm strong enough to handle anything. I know a lot more than people think I know, I've made it through a lot of stuff I didn't think I was going to make it through, and I've heard a lot of things that have broken my heart; I don't ever let any of it stop me from recovering, moving forward, and getting stronger.

I don't decide what's in someone else's best interests and I expect them do the same for me.