I grew up being bullied.
I was the fattest kid in school.
Mom had un-diagnosed mental issues (doc said "your childhood must have been a living hell…").
Dad was an alcoholic.
I NEVER realized I had been abused or neglected. I just always thought I was "not a real person" and didn't deserve the right to speak, have feelings, interact with "popular" kids at school, etc.
So, I grew up seeing first hand the dark side of humanity. I grew to HATE BULLIES especially. People who, rather than take pity on someone who was clearly down, they chose to instead torment them even more.
Adolescent drug use.
Trouble with the law.
Finally, high-school drop out.
Then, at the age of 16, I became a true believer.
I got a job (washing dishes).
I got my GED.
After a few months of being "the best dishwasher ever" I got a better job–at a factory.
I started taking night classes while working 50 hours per week. I became a certified paramedic.
I lost 125 pounds over 9 months and totally transformed.
It seems that God had given me "hidden beauty" that was revealed then. Overnight, I went from "Pat" to a JFK-Jr.-type of handsome. The most-beautiful girls were flocking to me.
After 2 years of factory work, I quit my job and enrolled in community college. None of my family, extended family or family friends had ever gone to college. It was a totally unknown world to us.
I still remember the words "That is the stupidest thing you have ever done, leaving your well-paying factory job and going to college. You will never amount to anything!".
Due to my good grades in getting my Associate's Degree, I was accepted into an incredible, private, Christian school (Seattle Pacific University).
I retired early at just over 50, after an incredible career in business operations (once serving as the COO of the largest multi-unit medical practice of it's kind on earth, with 750 units), then owning my own multi-unit practice.
I've seen the dark side of humanity; it did its best to shape me, destroy me, early in life.
I've also seen the good side of humanity; it looks like what we do here. What POTUS is doing via Q and team. It looks like the sacrifices our brothers and sisters have and are making–in rescuing the innocent children, who have experienced far worse than I ever did. It looks like you, anons and fens.
The morale of my story is that it was the hard times that formed my resolve to live to see the good times. If I can encourage anyone in our fight at this point in the war, I would say, ENDURE.
CHARACTER is forged in times of hardship; it's what you do with what you're dealt that matters most (in this life, as well as the next).
Choose to endure and know that when you do, you have already become stronger than your foes.
WWG1WGA