I was reading a stripper's blog this morning, and found the following quote (italics mine):

In general- stripping has led me to be more empathetic, I think. And more intuitive. And to have a better sense of humor. And to trust and guard my own boundaries more than I ever have. And I’ve learned how to tell people to fuck off with less anger and more grace, which is a big one, because when I first started (and throughout my entire adolescent life prior) I got pissed easily and took everything personally. Like people were trying to take something from me. I left feeling drained. Everything is different now.

Personally I'm not there yet. I'm still in the "They're trying to take something from me" phase. Sometimes I leave work and I'm just fuming, turning the night's incidents over and over in my head. How dare they? What gives them the fucking right?

Anger would be pretty harmless on its own, but then sometimes I feel hurt, too, which is less externally focused ... and then sometimes I feel guilty and stupid, for having let the hurt happen to myself, which is the dumbest thing of all. :-/

Did you have this feeling when you started dancing? Did you grow out of it?