@jeffowski This describe exactly how I was growing up. An observer. A pleaser. Practicing mentally every conversation and predicting the behavior... of... EVERYONE. Walter Mitty in my head. And I became an author. Go figure.
@jeffowski Yes. Including being a good cis boy and trying to become the man you never ever wanted to be. Happens to girls who were born with a pp all the time, at least it did when I was growing up.
@jeffowski yep. Mom took any and every opportunity to "teach" me. Even when she was ranting about somebody else, I felt like she was lecturing me. I never tell her about friends anymore because if we ever stop associating, it's somehow my fault even if we just grow apart over the years. I'm proud of myself though; I finally learned how to say "I didn't ask for advice" when she was starting in on how I do my job last week.
@jeffowski The challenge, of course, is that now that I am grown up, I have no idea who I am or what I want. I am lost, adrift, and don't know how to resolve an image of my character.