Dear musician16:

It is natural for us, as social animals, to care about what other people think about us. We are born to care. And some of it makes sense in the context of your human lives: for example, it makes sense for an employee to care about what the employer thinks, for the purpose of keeping the job. But it doesn’t make sense to care about what any person thinks, people who can’t hurt you or are very unlikely to hurt you and people who can’t help you. Looking to be thought well of by anyone and everyone is an impossible task and useless too.

You wrote that you were severely bullied in school. If you would like to share more about it, please do. If you do, I will reply and it may help both of us understand life better, if only by a bit.

anita