Fred Aiken Writing

I grew up anxiety ridden. Perhaps it derived from a psycho-lingual schism in brain function to comprehend normal social situations, social dissolution, but I wouldn’t be able to say for sure. Early on in my life I developed an exoskeleton-like barrier to shroud myself in, like blue hedgehog defying the laws of physics to collect imaginary coins. I called it UPR, or Unable to Personally Relate. It was a projection of my awkwardness around others. It caused me to question why people laughed at me, gave me a searing physical pain whenever I conversed with anyone, and disallowed empathetic attitudes. There’s not really much else to my life. Just random chatter in incomprehensible mouthfuls.