It Only Hurts When I Cry

I chose the title It Only Hurts When I Cry because when I was a child, and I was being physically beaten, or back then they would call it discipline, I refuse to cry. Because in my mind, if I cried, the pain would come, so I build an exterior wall around myself and refused to submit to the pain. Therein was where the title It Only Hurts When I Cry came from. I know truly now that that was just a coping mechanism. That enabled me to survive emotionally, mentally, and physically. But for me, the words were just so powerful that I chose to title my first memoir about my tumultuous upbringing It Only Hurts When I Cry by Lisa Bethel-Young.

-- Lisa Bethel-Young