Welcome to Radio Headspace, it's Dora. So when I first started dating my now boyfriend,
I treated our first date like a job interview.
I'm talking about serious energy, intentional eye contact, measured responses.
Questions like, where do you see yourself in five years?
And meanwhile, inside, I was trying so hard to manage the moment rather than just be in it.
The truth is, I was afraid that if I showed the playful,
silly side of myself too soon, I wouldn't be taken seriously.
So I showed up seriously, polished, put together.
But the more time we spent together, the more I realized that wasn't me.
Well, not all of me.
Because under all that composure is someone who laughs easily, who loves a good inside joke,
who sings off-key and makes ridiculous sound effects when she's nervous.
And as soon as I let that side come through, everything softened.
Our connection deepened, not because I was performing,
but because I was being real and playful and free.
We live in a world that rewards seriousness.
The more serious you are, the more credible you seem.
But real connection doesn't always come through credentials.
It comes through presence, through levity, through being human.
Play isn't what you do once the important stuff is done.