learning to talk about things i like

a few years ago, i used to struggle a lot with talking about things i liked. i feared that my words wouldn't ever be able to properly articulate why i loved the things i did. it kind of felt like i was selling my feelings short and in a way, doing that thing i held so dear a disservice by failing to verbalize what exactly made it so great. i used to joke that writing a dissertation on why i disliked something was infinitely easier than writing a paragraph about why i liked something. it probably didn't help i used to think that it was a little cringey too — hearing myself try to explain why something resonated with me, that is. maybe because i used to get made fun of for my interests. or because of that time i was told my opinions weren't really worth caring about. every time i heard myself speak, i just felt like a loser and a try hard, grasping at a painfully surface level analysis of something that ran miles deep. it is just as mr. knightley once dictated to emma woodhouse: if i…