Some people swear off of love after one bad breakup too many. Self-sufficiency becomes a point of pride, perhaps rightfully so. After all, self-sufficiency breeds a sense of security within an ocean of solitude.
Some people swear off of pets after a lifelong companion passes away. After spending each day with a creature so willing to devote its uncomplicated, unconditional love to them, that creature’s absence from the world creates a pit of such despair that it feels that nothing will ever be able to fill it.
Some people swear off of trying altogether. Amidst constant comparison to others, they hold themselves to standards so high as to be impossible to live up to.