So here’s the setting: you’re sitting at the lunch table at school with your friends, chatting about something completely harmless. And then someone asks you that anomalous question you’ve been avoiding for a long time, even years: What’s your darkest secret?

But, the thing is, you really can’t tell them. And this is exactly the way some people are, especially shy people. They avoid, at all costs, telling anyone what’s so secretive. And I believe that’s just fine. If you have a secret, don’t you have the right to keep it? No matter what it is, you have a right to your privacy. When you have something as intimate as an unrequited (or possibly requited) crush, that’s pretty deep, right? Or what if you have something that seems embarrassing, such as dyslexia, that you’d seriously prefer not to let out in the open?

Plus, there’s some gossipy, nosy people (sorry, but they are) that try and try to lift it out of you. It’s sort of a scary experience, wouldn’t you think? When there are those in this world that feel they need to know everything about you, it’s a little unnerving. Can’t you keep one little secret, just to yourself, so that you can live at a completely tranquil state?

You’ve been trying, toeing the line, just a slip away from letting it out. It’s hard, no matter what it is. Whether you’ve been pining after the jock or cheerleader, or struggling to stay with your classmates in school. Secrets are never any fun to keep, but sometimes you have to keep your head up high and not back down. Don’t think of it as stubbornness, though perhaps a right to your own thoughts and feelings. You really aren’t purposely trying to hurt whoever wants to know. You’re just trying to protect yourself.