lightgods:

“I was bullied a lot as a kid and after a particularly awful day at school I went to someone I thought I could trust and asked what I should do about it. Their response was that maybe I shouldn’t be the way that I was and then the kids would leave me alone. Terrible advice. It made me feel like it was my fault, and that I deserved to be hated for some reason – and it was even scarier that I couldn’t tell what it was that they hated so much. But I took the advice and pretty much stopped talking for a year. It did stop the bullying for the most part, but I feel like I’ve spent the rest of life since trying to get back to that ebullient, fearless little girl I once was.”