Almost no one can take on an entire future in one step, much less while reeling emotionally.

There's nothing wrong with being happy somewhere, even if it's the little pond you grew up in, as long as you are in fact comfortable vs. bored.

I'm not a big fan of the white lie.

For me, the greatest source of frustration was trying to work with a willful child when there was something else I wanted - say, to get the child to go to bed so I could have my own time. Just the promise of the time, and feeling that promise slip away, was enough to introduce a whole other element of stress into the encounter.

One helpful thing to keep in mind as a retort-stopper is that you won't "win," you won't change anyone's mind, you won't change any votes, you won't make the atmosphere in the room any better, YOU won't feel any better.

Awkwardness is when there's a risk of a perception gap between what you mean and what you appear to mean.

Almost no one can take on an entire future in one step, much less while reeling emotionally.