Letters from Xhale the magazine Words that breathe. Stories that Linger,

I’ve learned how to become a bitter man.

Not all at once—piece by piece. Experience by experience. You take a hit, you adjust. You get disappointed, you harden. After a while, it starts to feel like part of your design, not just something that happened to you.

I’ve learned how to be a sad man too. Quiet about it. Controlled. The kind of sadness that doesn’t ask for help—it just sits there and becomes you.

And somewhere along the way, I started calling it something else.

I call it crafting my insurance.