The time delay in introvert relationships.
Even with the people that I trust and care about, it takes time for me to open up. It can take a lifetime to reveal the depth of who I am. The right people will understand that slowly peeling back the layers of my personality is a privilege.
The poem “Mon Semblable” by Stephen Dunn beautifully expresses the merits of “holding some back”:
Anonymous among strangers
I look for those
with hidden wings,
and for scars
that those who once had wings
can’t hide.
Though I know it’s unfair,
I reveal myself
one mask at a time.
Does this appeal to you,
such slow disclosures,
a lifetime perhaps
of almost knowing one another?
I would hope you, too,
would hold something back
in order to function properly.