Journal [April 20]

Is my personality today the same as it was when I was a little kid?

I hope not. Actually, I'd like to say that it improved. Obviously, when I was younger I didn't know much, I didn't really know what was going on in the world and I didn't know how much it would impact me. I just sat around and played with toys and bothered my mom all day, like any typical kid, right? Now that I've grown, I've become so much more open-minded and accepting to a lot of things, I've learned that not everything can be perfect, y'know? I've learned to be nicer not only to others but especially myself. Something that happened to me that probably changed me for the better, sadly, was when I was about 7 or 8 and I was actually being bullied by my neighbors. I didn't know what was really going on at the time but their words hurt. It changed me for the better because I realized that if no one was going to be nice to me, I would have to learn to be nice to myself. I don't necessarily know how I can relate it to what has happened to Montag throughout the book, but I guess I can say that we both learned through experiences and managed to overcome some challenges in order to be at peace with ourselves, in a sense.