I still flinch sometimes when someone says "you're so strong." Because what they don't see is how much of that 'strength' was just not having any other choice. They think it's a compliment, and maybe it is, in some light. But it mostly just reminds me of all the nights I screamed into a pillow so no one would know I was falling apart, because there WAS no one to catch me. I used to think I should be proud of that kind of strength. Now I mostly just feel angry that things got so bad I had to find it in the first place. There are softer ways to grow, and I wish I'd been allowed one of them.