[The David]

The people I empathize most with are family members. That's really the only thing they share. I guess it's because they're the ones I've trusted the most.

It's not even really sympathy. It's not like I feel sorry for them, and I don't necessarily even respect their views or opinions. I just live my life through their feelings. I am a very sympathetic person, so if they have a problem it does intensify the feeling.

I've been trying to figure out how I can be so uninhibited and carefree around most people, but when I have to tell my parents something, it's the emotional equivalent of climbing Mount Everest. I know that after I open myself up like that, whatever the news does to them, I'll go through it with them. I'll basically become them.

Before, I might have blamed it on shame, depression, or insecurity, but now that everything else in my life is going amazingly well, I know there's something entirely different going on.