I was silent as a child, and silenced as a young woman; I am taking my lumps and bumps for being a big mouth, now, but usually from those whose opinion I don't respect.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I was pretty quiet as a child.
In school, I was the quietest girl ever! I had a lot of trouble in school. Kids were mean to me.
I was very quiet, very shy and docile.
You remember what you go through as a kid, what's going to make you listen, what's going to make you respond. I held onto that. People who treated me like that when I was younger got every bit of respect and attention I could give them, because I knew that they were coming at me from almost an equal level.
I was afraid people wouldn't take me seriously, or would stop respecting me, if I talked about how bad I was feeling. The only people I talked openly about it with was my business partner, Dave Jilk, and my girlfriend - now wife - Amy Batchelor. They were amazingly supportive, but even then, I was deeply ashamed about my weaknesses.
I was a very quiet child growing up. I always knew that I was funny - I just never put it to use.
It took me quite a long time to develop a voice, and now that I have it, I am not going to be silent.
As soon as I could talk, I was bellowing at the top of my lungs. My parents couldn't get over how weird I sounded - like an old man when I was just a toddler! But no one was gonna shut me up.
I'm grateful that, after an early life of being silenced, sometimes violently, I grew up to have a voice, circumstances that will always bind me to the rights of the voiceless.
I was a fat little kid with a speech impediment. I used to get beat up, not just picked on.