I'm sure this will sound pathetic, but it's something I've only recently began to admit to myself. I feel like I put on a pretty good act of pretending things don't bother me, but the truth is, I'm a fairly emotional guy. Like... too emotional. Over the past few years, I've gone down some pretty dark holes, and been tore up over a few women.

Here's the thing, though; I know it's not about the women. It's about me. There are some things about myself I'm proud of -- I consider myself an especially hard worker, I take ownership of my mistakes when I occasionally fuck up -- but I also allow trivial things to really get me down.

I'm really prone to beating myself up, or getting upset by stupid shit. I can point to things like being raised largely by my mom and sister, or my cousins beating me up and making fun of me for most of my youth, but at the end of the day, these are my issues, and it's my life that they're destroying.

I want to reach a point that I'm stable or confident enough that, hey, if a girl turns me down, I don't mentally start telling myself "You're a piece of shit, of course she turned you down, what are you even doing here, just go home where you belong".

So... where does that journey begin? Any advice from you guys?