throbbing light machine

I think in one way I was really lucky, because I was never punished or denigrated for academic underperformance. Instead, my parents would take it as an indicator that there was something wrong with my situation, something wrong with me, and the whole weight of their parenting energy would swing into action to fix things.

But they didn't always know how, and I wonder what answers I might have come to if they'd allowed me to just be the weird kid for a few years, instead of treating me like a ~project~.