BY JAY CHANTHALANGSY
I love my wife. She is a beautiful, caring, and
loving person. She has taught me a great deal about myself and how I
communicate.
You see, I wasn’t always a sensitive person. I was raised
to be tough and numb to feelings. I kept all feelings inside because I was not
allowed to express them. My father was strict and to him feelings
were nothing more than a sign of weakness. Imagine over 20 years of that
type of conditioning!
As an adult, I had a difficult time expressing my
true feelings to anyone because of my lack of experience with sharing while I
was growing up. I do not at all place all blame on my dad — he came from
an upbringing that was identical to mine, so to raise me this way was all he
knew.
In my relationships, I struggled