You’re a people pleaser.

You’re an oyster with a pearl inside that you share with everyone but yourself.

To be a people-pleaser, you must shed your human skin and become clay. The fingertips pinch, pull and press, and suddenly you are different.

You are molded by gestures, expressions, and a constant cycle of kneading and releasing. If they want to build you up to be a castle, then they will mold your arms into turrets and your mouth will open to become a moat for their kings. If they decide to destroy you in their fury, then you can do nothing but accept it. You flatten out against the table and absorb the brunt of curled fists, and you are there for them to release their sorrows, to be destroyed and to be created again.

Expectations form you and they break you. You want to be a masterpiece, but your beauty is in the eye of whoever is beholding you at any given moment. But if they want you to be, you will try your hardest to be.

People-pleasers are not dull and they are certainly not ignorant, and you know that very well. They call you a puppy-dog, a robot, a clone, but you know how much smarter you are than that.

You are a planner, a tactician, the wheels turn and suddenly you, yourself, are a strategy waiting to be played out in the endless war of relationships. Your armies are your words of advice, words of disdain against enemies. You open your arms to welcome potential allies while your generals, your neurons, are busy assessing the lay of the land and formulating the next plan of attack. You sign treaties with weekend outings, and you open fire with a cold shoulder.

To be a people-pleaser is to notice the slightest chances in anatomy. A curled lip, a flicker of the eyes, a nibbled lip. You are a well-versed reader in the language of the shoulders, arms, and posture.

You are a tiny animal basking in the warmth of hugs and compliments and pride. People are the rays of the sun, golden and heating your shivering fur as a reward for your persistence.

You’re a people pleaser. Your only aim is to create happiness, but the saddest part about you is that you don’t know how to do anything but that.