After my nerve damage: there are some mistakes you can only make once.
I was about 11 or so and acting out, my teacher said my name. I just froze for a moment and it dawned on me that was the first time he had said my name all day. Completely invisible unless I was doing something wrong. Just a square shape in a square hole unless I choose otherwise and if I do it by making my life worse.
I guess it doesn’t sound profound. Every guy knows this on some level but it really knocked the wind out of me at the time.
No one is gonna stick up for you and what’s right, you gotta do that yourself
Say what you mean; mean what you say.
No idea where I heard or read it, but preteen me internalized it and it’s become part of my creed to this day
There is no god and adults are assholes.
Actually as a kid I realized that what I was taught in the bible and church were metaphors and not things to be taken literally. I mean, a lot of it went against what we learned in school, and school actually made sense.
Only much later in my teens did I realize that many Christians do take the Bible literally. It was then that I decided to completely abandon my religion.