To 13 Year Old Me Poem by Adindu Prudence

Anxiety?
No...I stuttered as I answered
'I'm just attuned to the rhythms of my heart'
To 13 year old me getting told 'I have a strong relationship with my emotions' sounded more like an insult than a compliment. Did I seem vulnerable? Was I too nice? Was it obvious that I was excessively self aware?

These thoughts kept whispering into my consciousness as I sunk into a depth of emotional awareness, pretending to navigate my soul with ease, but in reality my coping mechanism was just a fragile dance of make believe.

Realization hitting me sooner...it wasn't even always about the act, it was the little anxiety that I struggled with, creeping in and out like whispers in a dream, the constant:
Am I good enough?
Am I doing things right?
How will I cope if things go badly?
The excessive pressure to perform well socially and my insane drive for academic validation led to my lunacy.

13 year old me was just a teenager not only afraid of letting the world see through her but also scared of what was to be.

So, was it anxiety or was she just 'overly attached to her emotions' as she was once told by a 'fellow'?