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Personal Reflection:
At first, this reads like a warning. Truth as something fixed and immovable. No concern for timing. No patience for fragility. It suggests a hard line: reality doesn’t bend just because we aren’t ready.

But the deeper unease comes from recognizing how often we already know the truth long before we confront it. It lives in the body first—in the hesitation before a sentence, in the words you keep revising so they sound less final, less damning. We don’t reject truth outright; we stall it. We translate it into something more palatable. Writing exposes that delay. Once the sentence exists, there’s nowhere left to hide the negotiation. The discomfort isn’t new—it’s overdue.

Maybe the work isn’t building a stronger stomach for truth. Maybe it’s learning to notice when you’ve already digested it and are pretending otherwise. The page doesn’t demand bravery or endurance. It asks for acknowledgment. To leave the sentence as it is. To let the truth stand—not because it’s easy to bear, but because pretending you don’t feel it has already cost you more.

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Reflective Prompt:
What truth have you already absorbed, even though you’re still acting like it hasn’t settled yet?