I was a very fearful child. Like most kids, I was afraid when I was all alone in my bedroom at night. My parents would say, "Stop being scared. There's no such thing as monsters." "Monsters aren't real." And I would reply, "I'm not afraid of monsters." "I'm afraid of bad guys." They never had a response. They'd just tell me it's okay and to go to sleep after that, because terrible people would always exist and they knew it. So they couldn't lie and tell me 'bad guys' aren't real. Monsters are real.
















