But I was stubbornly trying to finish writing an essay and I tried to just “power through it.” This is a bad idea. And I know, partly, where it comes from. All my life, I’ve had people say, “it’s not that bad”, “just tough it out and you will get used to it,” “stop acting like such a baby!” I’ve internalized a lot of the shame and so when I should have just packed things up and gone home, I tried to power through the stress and suffering instead. I stayed until the coffee house closed and I got a lot of work done, despite the pain. But I wasn’t finished. I
