You learned love from people who didn't know how to give it. Now you teach it to everyone except yourself.
You give love perfectly. You receive it like a foreign language. Because nobody ever taught you the receiving part.
Your first lesson in love came with conditions.
Be quiet and you'll be loved.
Perform well and you'll be noticed.
Don't need too much and you'll be kept.
You learned love was earned. Never given.
So you earned it. Every day. With every breath.
You became the easiest person in every room.
The one who adjusts. Accommodates. Absorbs.
You called it being a good person.
It was survival camouflaged as kindness.
You learned to give love flawlessly because giving kept you safe.
Receiving was the dangerous part.
Receiving meant depending. Depending meant trusting. Trusting meant being vulnerable to the same people who taught you love was conditional.
So you became the giver. Permanently.
The giver who never asks. Never needs. Never receives.
And when someone tries to love you without conditions, you panic.
Because unconditional wasn't in the curriculum.
You don't know what to do with love that doesn't have a price tag.
It feels suspicious. Too easy. Like the setup before the withdrawal.
You learned love in a classroom that graded on compliance. The lesson was wrong. The student was perfect.