An uncomfortable comparison

Have you ever had someone liken themselves to you and you think, "O dear God, please, don't let that actually be true..."?

This happened to me rather publicly with an individual at one point in my life and I had that reaction. And that person is on the far periphery of my life again and I think about it everytime I encounter them, which, thankfully, is not very often.

Before, I sort of brushed off the comparison, but lately I've been thinking about it a lot. I have always admired certain things about this person, but also realized that the relationship with them was sort of toxic for me. But lately, I've been realizing that, in some fundamental ways, we are a lot alike. And not in the good ways.

It's been a bit of a wake-up call. And then I realized, opening oneself to self-criticism can be a good thing. If a bit uncomfortable.