Heather has a Bachelor's Degree in English from Moravian College and has been freelance writing for more than 12 years.

From an early age, certain women have been told

Vulnerability was a sign of weakness to the world

Never declare your true feelings upfront with anyone

No need to be made a fool of without any provocation

Signs of anger and happiness need to be kept at bay

Be professional to everyone; even when you detest them

And want to throw a bucket of ice water on their heads for fun

Cat-fights belonged to the Real Housewives and Springer guests

Crying in public restrooms made you a spectacle

Everyone wanted to avoid; unless it took place on Maury

Where the female guest to find out which of 10 men

Fathered their child and revealed that none of them were

Exposed as someone of loose sexual preferences on TV

Would likely never grace a television screen due to high anxiety

Speaking in a room with 15 people as terrifying being around 10,000

Palms sweating worse than being in the Mojave Desert

Mouth dried out into a flesh colored cotton ball parched with nerves

Hard to formulate sentences and vision blurred from bright lights

Function better in smaller crowds on all entertainment subjects

Personal questions get danced around like Muhammed Ali in the ring

Avoiding his competitors before he stung them with a right hook

Hard to fathom the idea of letting someone inside

Your personal and private Fort Knox without knowing the code

Earned the capability of functioning without the National Guard

Surrounding your heart with barbed wire and an electric fence

Also, a sniper waiting in the wings to shoot anyone dangerous

Sometimes the idea of letting anyone inside your inner emotional sanctum

Downright scarier than watching Hannibal Lecter running towards you

With a fork in one hand and a knife in the other

Terrified of being judged as the weaker sex or person

Labelled as crazy or unfit to see daylight ever again

Used to burying those dark inferiority complex entanglements in sitcoms

Unable to mask insecurities anymore amongst phony laugh tracks

Accepted the fact that the lock needed to be burned off the internal vault

Door needed to be kept open no matter what

Not even a tidal wave will force it closed

Allowed everyone to gain general admission; as long as they paid the fee

And didn't steal any priceless jewels from the vault

Those were priceless and can never be replaced

Everything else not nailed down could go with the blessing of the house.

Good luck and choose wisely.