I Hate Hugging: Getting Over the Fear of Intimacy
“It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.” ~E.E. Cummings
I was a shy kid. My mom said that when I was in pre-school, the teacher asked all of the kids to hold hands and I said, “No thanks, I’ll just hold my own.”
That may have been the beginning of my aversion towards human contact. As a kid, I remember grandparents, aunts, and uncles giving me big horrible hugs. If I didn’t blatantly push them away or wiggle free, I stood there stiff as board, until the torture was over.
They thought this was adorable …